A Texas-based doctor was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison for healthcare fraud after he carried out what prosecutors said was a nearly two-decade scheme that involved falsely diagnosing thousands of patients with degenerative diseases and profiting handsomely off their treatments.
Jorge Zamora-Quezada, a rheumatologist licensed to practice medicine in Texas, Arizona and Massachusetts before being stripped of his licenses in each state, raked in hundreds of millions of dollars for the misdiagnoses and treatment he ordered during his roughly 20 years as a medical practitioner. The treatments included punishing rounds of chemotherapy, intravenous infusions, and a battery of other tests, monthly visits, and regular procedures associated with the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic, autoimmune condition for which there is no cure.
The sentencing, and his earlier court appearances, played out at times like a study in contrasts. Prosecutors detailed his extravagant lifestyle, including a private jet, 13 properties across the U.S., including in Aspen and various towns in Mexico, and a Maserati – while the health of the patients he defrauded continued to worsen.
Prosecutors accused him of taking advantage of vulnerable individuals in Texas, such as teenagers, elderly individuals, and disabled persons, in order to carry out the scheme. Some of them testified at Wednesday’s hearing about the ongoing side effects they suffered as a result of the doctor’s actions, including receiving chemotherapy or IV infusions they did not need.
AMTRAK BILKED OUT OF $12M BY AT LEAST 119 EMPLOYEES, DOCTORS IN FRAUD SCHEME; MANY STILL ON THE JOB: REPORT
It’s “one of the most egregious” cases of its kind the Justice Department has brought in this space, Matthew Galeotti, head of the Justice Department Criminal Division, told Fox News Digital in a sit-down interview on Wednesday.
That’s because of “all of the various kinds of misconduct rolled into one,” he said, “and because it was pervasive – the scheme lasted more than 18 years.”
“By the time you’re towards the end of the scheme, he knows the consequences some of these things have had on the victims, and he’s going forward anyways,” he said of the doctor.
The Justice Department’s Criminal Division has been prosecuting this case for years. Unlike other departments, it is one of the few where career and political staff alike are largely in lockstep, with goals and cases that transcend partisan politics and seek instead to hold criminals like the Texas doctor accountable.
Galeotti said he sees the case as emblematic of the Trump administration’s goals to vindicate victims and counter wasteful government spending.
“Even in cases where you don’t see this level of misconduct, where you’re not prescribing someone chemotherapy medicine that doesn’t need it, which obviously sort of stands out on its own, we still have a problem because you were wasting government funds that should be going to actually benefiting patients,” Galeotti said.
A BERLIN DOCTOR HAS BEEN CHARGED WITH THE KILLINGS OF 15 PATIENTS UNDER PALLIATIVE CARE
A separate Justice Department official told Fox News Digital Zamora-Quezada’s case was one of the “most significant” instances of patient harm that he had seen in at least a decade.
“There was testimony about truly debilitating side effects from the medications, things like strokes, necrosis of the jawbone, really the jawbone melting away, hair loss, liver damage,” the official said.
The doctor’s actions were seen as particularly egregious, in the Justice Department’s telling, because they sought to prey on lower-income communities in Texas, targeting teenagers, elderly persons, and disabled individuals. The doctor also operated in areas with less access to medical care and with fewer native English speakers compared to other parts of the state.
“Of course, it’s always the most twisted when you’re benefiting from someone else’s misfortune – misfortune you caused – and misfortune you used for your own personal enrichment,” Galeotti said.
“They’re the hallmarks of the worst kind of conduct that you see,” Galeotti said.
DOJ PROSECUTOR SUING TRANS MEDICINE WHISTLEBLOWER TAKEN OFF CASE OVER APPARENT CONFLICT OF INTEREST
Zamora-Quezada was convicted by a jury in 2020 of seven counts of healthcare fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, and one count of obstruction of justice. His attorneys argued that the fraud was not “pervasive” in the way the government made it out to be, according to public court filings.
Prosecutors said Zamora-Quezada purchased condominium properties in vacation towns, including in Aspen, San Diego, and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. They said he commuted to his various doctors’ offices in Texas in a Maserati and a private jet, both emblazoned with his initials, “ZQ.” His assets were forfeited after he was charged, prosecutors said.
Meanwhile, they said, while Zamora-Quezada was living a life of luxury, out of nearly 100,000 Medicare patients he treated, Zamora-Quezada diagnosed 72.9% of them with rheumatoid arthritis. Prosecutors compared that data to seven other Texas rheumatologists, who cumulatively diagnosed 13% of their patients with the same condition.
Prosecutors asked for $100 million in restitution, but the judge required him to pay $28 million.
Attorneys for Zamora-Quezada did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Read the full article here
