Yesterday, five individuals related to ATC, or the American Therapeutic Corporation, which is located in Miami, where convicted of charges related to their participation in the Medicare scam.

This includes two doctors, who were allegedly instrumental in facilitating the submission of false claims to Medicare, resulting in over $200 million in Medicare Fraud. The case against ATC and related companies is one of the largest known instances of Medicare Fraud.

Doctor Alberto Ayala and Doctor Mark Willner were both convicted of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, while being acquitted of several other charges. They were remanded into custody, awaiting sentencing, while Hilario Morris, a and Curtis Gates, were convicted of similar charges.

However, the jury acquitted a therapist named Lydia Ward and Nichole Eckert, who is a mental health counselor.

Morris, according to court records, paid kickbacks to people who provided medicare recipients that could be used to fraudulently bill Medicare, including owners and operators of Halfway houses. Gates, allegedly received kickbacks for providing patients to ATC’s mental health program.

Prosecutors presented evidence that showed that Ayala and Willner, as well as other doctors related to ATC, routinely signed off on patient records and treatment plans, without ever actually seeing the patients. This is referred to as robo-signing, with evidence presented at the trial showing that some of the forms signed by Willner were when he was on holiday outside of the United States. Allegedly, patients with diseases that would make them completely ineligible for the type of therapy offered by ATC, including people with brain damage, resulting in a persistent vegetative state, were also signed off on by these doctors.

Together, Willner and Ayala were, as per court records, responsible for over a hundred million in fraudulent claims, which represents half of the American Therapeutic Corporation’s medicare scam.

American Therapeutic Corporation, along with a related company, the American Sleep Institute and their parent company Medlink Professional Management, ran a program that provided a special program for those with mental health issues, which is labeled a PHP, or partial hospitalization treatment.

However, many of the patients were not eligible for this type of treatment and the services provided did not actually meet Medicare’s requirements. Kickbacks were paid, instead, by ATC and ASI to a number of half-way house owners and managers, patient recruiters, doctors, and even Medicare recipients themselves, in order to bill Medicare for their mental health treatments.

To date, almost twenty people have been convicted of charges related to the American Therapeutic Medicare Scam. This includes the owners and operators of the company, Margarita Acevado, Judith Negron , Marianella Valera, and Lawrence Duran, as well as those involved with the related parent company, Medlink Professional Management.

Duran was sentenced to fifty years in prison, Valera and Negron both received a 35 year sentence, while Acevado was sentenced to federal prison for over 7 years.