Robert Glazer, Medical clinic operator indicted on health care fraud

Robert Glazer, 67, a Los Angeles physician, was indicted on June 3 for conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

Over the course of eight years, Glazer is alleged to have been party to a scheme to defraud Medicare of more than $33 million, according to a June 3 statement from the U.S. Department of Justice and Health and Human Services. Medicare paid Glazer more than $22 million on what are called “false and fraudulent” claims in a press release issued on June 3 by the United States Justice Department

“From approximately January 2006 through May 2014, Glazer allegedly billed Medicare for services that were not medically necessary, and at times were not provided to the Medicare beneficiaries. In addition, Glazer allegedly signed prescriptions, certifications and other medical documents for medically unnecessary home health services, hospice services, and power wheelchairs and other durable medical equipment.

“Glazer’s co-conspirators then sold the prescriptions and certifications to… supply companies, home health agencies and other providers, knowing that the prescriptions and certifications were fraudulent,” the statement said. The claims filed by Glazer amounted to “approximately $33,484.779.”

Glazer ran a family practice on Santa Monica Boulevard in East Hollywood. And, last month, he was one of “nearly 100” medical professionals “from across the country, including Los Angeles county, [who] were charged with scamming Medicare out of $260 million,” according to reporting by the Daily News.  Multiple calls to Glazer’s clinic went unanswered.

The Medicare Fraud Strike Force, an agency conceived to deter Medicare fraud, participated in the investigation of Glazer’s actions.

Since its conception in 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force “has charged nearly 1,900 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $6 billion,” the Justice Department said in the release.