A Texas rheumatologist who has turned a license to follow medication right into a $118 million scheme to fund his high-end way of life by misdiagnosing a completely wholesome affected person will spend the following decade in a way more luxurious excavation.
The sentence was 68-year-old Jorge Zamora Quezada (RA), who was convicted of fraudulent sufferers and authorities and personal medical insurance corporations by diagnosing rheumatic arthritis (RA), however was not incurable for his lifetime.
The federal decide additionally ordered the dishonorable physician to confiscate $28,245,454 of property, together with 13 actual property, jet plane and a Maserati Grand Turismo actual property portfolio.
Matthew R. Galeotti, of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Affairs Department, stated in a press release from the DOJ after this week’s ruling.
Dr. Zamora Kezada funded a stunning way of life for 20 years by traumatizing sufferers, abusering staff, mendacity to insurance coverage corporations, and stealing taxpayer cash. His despair represents a deep betrayal of belief in a weak affected person who depends on care and integrity from a health care provider.
The medical doctors carried out the plan from his mission, Texas, Texas, with the assistance of workers who have been abused and threatened by his place, and have been pressured to cooperate, testimony revealed. The mission is a city simply north of the Mexican border, about 250 miles south of San Antonio.
The DOJ additionally described the doctor’s “therapy” protocol.
Zamora-Quezada administered pointless remedies and ordered pointless checks, together with numerous injections, injections, x-rays, MRIs and different procedures. To obtain funds for these costly companies, Zamora-Quezada created a medical file and lied to the insurance coverage firm concerning the affected person’s situation.
His negative effects on sufferers embrace stroke, necrosis of the jawbone, hair loss, liver injury and really critical ache, making primary every day duties tough, reminiscent of bathing, cooking and driving.”
As one affected person testified on the 25-day trial, “I used to be consistently in mattress, unable to stand up from mattress alone, and being pumped with treatment, so I did not really feel that there was any level in my life.”
One mom defined how she felt her youngster served as a “lab rat,” whereas others stated they deserted their school plans or felt “dwelling within the aged physique.”
Other medical doctors within the Rio Grande Valley testified in opposition to Zamora-Quezada, revealing their wholesome standing once they handled a whole lot of sufferers they have been satisfied they’d RA.
The DOJ assertion additionally contains proof images of the place the follow saved the medical information, exhibiting a shed destroyed by rodents and termites with most paperwork lined in feces and urine.
The corrupt physician had leverage to govern staff he employed throughout the border, the DOJ reported:
If requested a few file of a lacking affected person, medical doctors will order workers to “show” the file, investigators stated.
Zamora Kezada was convicted of 1 conspiracy to commit well being care fraud, seven counts of well being care fraud, and one conspiracy to intervene with justice.