JACKSONVILLE, FLA. — A Miami, Kansas man and his brother were charged Monday, June 27, in federal court with fraudulently billing insurance companies more than $1.4 billion, and in the process bankrupting a dozen rural hospitals, including Oswego Community Hospital.
Jorge Perez was the mastermind behind the plot to take over failing rural hospitals in Missouri, Kansas and other states and use them as fronts for the insurance fraud scheme. The men claimed charges for laboratory testing services that were conducted offsite, according to a story by Dan Margolies of KCUR News.
A 2017 audit by Missouri Auditor Nicole Galloway found that over a 10-month period Putnam County Memorial Hospital in Unionville received more than $90 million in insurance payments for lab work conducted at other hospitals.