Florida doctor is charged with insurance fraud.
Max Louis Citrin, 38, a Boca Raton, Florida, doctor, has pleaded guilty to four counts of defrauding insurance providers Cigna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Humana of more than $17 million. According to law enforcement agents, the doctor unnecessarily prescribed controlled substances and ordered medical testing for patients in order to receive payouts. Task force agents alleged that Citrin routinely billed insurance companies as much as $20,000 per patient for allergy testing and unneeded medical treatments.
The investigative report stated, “I am a detective with the Boca Raton Police Department. In May of 2020, I was assigned to the Palm Beach County Sober Homes Task Force. The task force learned of a doctor identified as Dr. Max Citrin who had a practice located at 6699 North Federal Highway, Suite 200, in Boca Raton. Dr. Citrin was purportedly involved in the recovery industry and had allegedly (been) prescribing narcotics to patients without following proper procedures or exams and without establishing that they are medically necessary.”
Under the terms of his plea deal, Citrin will serve 30 months in prison which will be followed by an additional five years of probation. Citrin will also have to give up his license to practice in Florida and California, as well as pay $2.5 million in restitution to the three insurance companies.
The Palm Beach County Sober Homes Task Force began investigating Citrin in November 2017 after receiving complaints of his shady prescribing practices. He was arrested in March 2020 and arrested yet again in February 2021 on additional charges. The task force has closed in on 75 medical practitioners in total since its inception.
Citrin eventually filled a fraudulent prescription for an undercover officer. He prescribed Xanax unnecessarily, then told her she needed to an allergy screening because she was a new patient even though she had never complained of allergy issues and was never was informed of the results..
In November 2017, two witnesses reported to an agent that Citrin wrote addictive narcotic prescriptions for their boyfriends, who were not patients, in exchange for recruiting patients to his practice. In total, there were more than 200 patients involved in the fraud scheme.
“A review of the 78 patients’ files found that Citrin cut and pasted nearly identical diagnoses, symptoms, backgrounds and vital signs on claims forms,” investigators said, adding, “Several patients said they went to the medical office on North Federal Highway because they heard that Dr. Citrin was easy to get drugs from.”
“Dr. Citrin made a mockery of his Hippocratic oath by cutting and pasting the same symptoms and vital signs for most of his patients so he could fraudulently bill insurers millions of dollars,” Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg stated.
Defense attorney Jordan Lewin responded, “We’re pleased that we were able to resolve the matter in the fashion that we did. Max is looking forward to putting this whole matter behind him and moving forward with his life.”
Sources:
Boca Raton doctor pleads guilty to insurance fraud; losses said to top $17 million
Boca doctor accused of nearly $900,000 in medical insurance fraud
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