News Releases
FORMER OWNER OF MIDTOWN MEDICAL CENTER INDICTED FOR HEALTH CARE FRAUD, MONEY LAUNDERING AND OBSTRUCTION
August 25, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
David E. Nahmias, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia; Thurbert E. Baker, Attorney General for the State of Georgia; Gregory Jones, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation; Vernon Keenan, Director, Georgia Bureau of Investigation; and Russell W. Hinton, State of Georgia Auditor, announce that a federal grand jury has returned an indictment against AARON M. HUROWITZ, 55, of Atlanta, Georgia, charging him with 80 counts of health care fraud, money laundering, and five counts of obstructing a federal health care fraud investigation. According to Nahmias:
The indictment charges that beginning at least by March of 1997 and continuing until October of 2002, HUROWITZ executed a scheme to defraud the State of Georgia Medicaid Program. HUROWITZ is a doctor of osteopathic medicine and the former owner and operator of the Midtown Medical Center, located at 849 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, Georgia, 30308. The indictment alleges that between 1997 and 2002, Medicaid paid HUROWITZ approximately three million dollars ($3,000,000.00) for physician services he claimed to have rendered to Medicaid patients. The indictment alleges that, in fact, a substantial portion of the claims HUROWITZ submitted to Medicaid for reimbursement were fraudulent. Specifically, the indictment accuses him of engaging in the following fraudulent billing practices: (1) billing for services that were not provided, (2) “upcoding,” or submitting claims for services at higher levels of reimbursement than were supported by the services that were actually provided, and (3) billing for medically unnecessary services, including numerous drug screens. The indictment further alleges that while HUROWITZ was being investigated, both by the Georgia Department of Community Health and by the State Health Care Fraud Control Unit, he falsified numerous medical records in an effort to conceal his fraudulent billing practices. Finally, the indictment alleges that HUROWITZ committed money laundering by transferring title to his Buckhead residence, located at 2740 Carmon On Wesley in Atlanta, to his wife in an effort to conceal the location of some of the proceeds of the alleged health care fraud scheme. The indictment seeks the forfeiture of HUROWITZ’s residence and the office building where Midtown Medical Center was located, as well as a money judgment equal to the amount of proceeds he obtained as a result of the alleged fraud.
U.S. Attorney Nahmias said of the case, “Health care fraud steals money from the government and drives up health care costs for the public. With our colleagues in state government, we will vigorously prosecute frauds against the public health care system.”
Members of the public are reminded that the indictment contains only charges. A defendant is presumed innocent of the charges and it will be the government's burden to prove a defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.
The case is being investigated by Special Agents of the FBI and GBI.
Assistant United States Attorney R. Joseph Burby, IV and Scott A. Smeal, an Assistant Attorney General with the State Health Care Fraud Control Unit, are prosecuting the case.
For further information please contact David E. Nahmias, United States Attorney or F. Gentry Shelnutt, Chief, Criminal Division, through Patrick Crosby, Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Attorney's Office, at (404) 581-6016. The Internet address for the HomePage for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia is www.usdoj.gov/usao/gan.