Medicare Paid Out $28K in Penis Pumps, Many for Girls

Phony claims didn't even change names
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 17, 2010 4:19 PM CDT
Medicare Paid Out $28K in Penis Pumps, Many for Girls
A penis pump is pictured in this file photo.   (Wikimedia Commons)

It's no wonder Medicare loses billions to fraud: fooling the health care program is really, really easy. Just ask Emilio Lopez and Orlando Estevez, two Florida businessmen accused of bilking Medicare for $28,600 in penis pumps to combat impotence, even though the supposed patients included women. Yes, Medicare regulators did not even notice they were paying out $395 per penis pump to help Florida ladies battle erectile dysfunction.

Sadly, authorities say the penis pump scheme is only the most outrageous of Lopez and Estevez's fraud: case documents detail how Medicare reimbursed their two companies about $735,000 after they submitted $1.9 million in fake claims, reports the Miami Herald, which notes that Miami-Dade has become the capital of Medicare fraud over the last decade.
(More Medicare stories.)

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