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Medicare Fraud in New Jersey
Medicare Fraud was a growing problem back in the 1990′s. Exposing those who participate in Medicare fraud in New Jersey was essential to helping to control the problem. In 1990, the Florida Legislature passed a law with an amendment that allowed anyone with a medical degree from outside the United States, who was not licensed as a physician, to become certified as a physician assistant in Florida.
There were 960 foreign medical graduates (FMGs) who took advantage of this opportunity before the Florida Academy of Physician Assistants got an injunction and stopped this major mistake.
In 1994 the Legislature passed a law that would require those FMGs to pass an examination administered by the state similar to the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants examination required to become a nationally certified physician assistant.
Of the 900 or so who took that exam, 60 passed. The remaining lost their privilege to practice medicine in Florida. Of those remaining 60, 15 have been convicted of Medicare fraud, and several more have been convicted of other major medical offenses. They have since lost their privileges. The physician’s assistant in the story was one of the foreign medical graduates and never nationally certified.