By Jeremy Roebuck
TheMonitor.com
Copyright 2007 TheMonitor.com
McALLEN, Texas — The owner of an Edinburg ambulance service could face prison time for a purported scheme to defraud government health care programs of more than $1 million.
Prosecutors allege Jesus Jorge Flores Jr., 35, of Weslaco, cheated the Medicare and Medicaid programs by paying patients to take unnecessary ambulance trips and then seeking federal reimbursement.
His company, St. Mary’s Ambulance Service, is accused to of driving seven dialysis patients to local clinics in 2004 even though all of them were healthy enough to walk or sit in a wheelchair, according to an indictment unsealed in federal court Wednesday.
Full Story: Owner faces up to 10 years in prision if convicted