2 Doctors Guilty of Offering Kickbacks
Two doctors were found guilty of offering illegal kickbacks in return for patient referrals, prosecutors said Friday.
Dr. Norton Hering, owner of the Jefferson Medical Group in Santa Ana, and Dr. Jose Fermin, the group’s office administrator, were convicted Thursday on felony charges of paying rebates for unlawful patient procurement, Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Lubinski said.
The doctors were prosecuted after the Orange County district attorney’s office mounted an undercover medical and insurance fraud investigation from April 1992 to December 1993. The investigation led to the indictment of 20 suspects, including eight medical doctors, two chiropractors and a licensed physical therapist.
Hering and Fermin are scheduled to be sentenced May 10 in Orange County Superior Court. Both men face a maximum penalty of three years in state prison and $10,000 fines each.
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