Glendale man sentenced for running fake clinic, defrauding Medicare
A Glendale man was sentenced late Thursday to serve two years in prison for operating a bogus medical clinic on the East Coast and defrauding Medicare.
George Baginyan, 33, pleaded guilty last October to 10 counts of health care fraud and 10 counts of submitting fraudulent claims, which resulted in Medicare payments totaling $132,848, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
He was also ordered to repay Medicare and must serve three years of supervised release.
Baginyan set up the phony clinic, called New Era Health Center Inc., in Philadelphia, where he stole an “elderly and frail” osteopathy doctor’s identity to submit fake claims and bill Medicare for unnecessary medical procedures that were never done.
He reportedly admitted to submitting the bogus claims between December 2008 and October 2009, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
-- Veronica Rocha, veronica.rocha@latimes.com
Follow on Google+ and on Twitter: @VeronicaRochaLA.
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