Boca doctor accused of nearly $900,000 in medical insurance fraud

BOCA RATON -- A Boca Raton physician is accused of bilking three health-insurance companies of nearly $900,000 combined, court records show.

Max Louis Citrin, 36, faces three counts of falsifying insurance claims of more than $100,000 and two counts of falsifying insurance claims of less than $20,000. He remained in the Palm Beach County Jail on Wednesday afternoon following his arrest Tuesday night.

Citrin is being held on $66,000 bail, and a judge ordered him Wednesday to turn over his passport and discontinue practicing medicine for the time being. The judge also ordered that Citrin prove the money he uses for bail was obtained legally.

An attorney listed in the court documents as representing Citron could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

According to an arrest report, Citrin Medical Corp. came under scrutiny in July 2017 after the Florida Department of Financial Services became aware of Citrin allegedly prescribing narcotics to patients without either examinations or medical necessity.

On Nov. 7, 2017, two witnesses told a detective assigned to the Palm Beach County Sober Homes Task Force that Citrin wrote narcotic prescriptions for their boyfriends in exchange for recruiting drug-recovery patients to his practice.

Two days later, two undercover officers posing as patients went to Citrin's office.

Citron gave one undercover officer a prescription for Xanax and told her she needed to an allergy screening because she was a new patient. The undercover officer never complained of allergy problems and never was informed of the results, the report said.

Citron allegedly billed Blue Cross Blue Shield nearly $20,000 for the officer's "allergies"-related visit and for "preparation of allergy shots."

After being alerted by law enforcement, the insurer's investigators discovered that Citrin had submitted 509 claims for allergy diagnosis and treatment in 30 months before the undercover operation.

A review of the 78 patients' files found that Citrin had allegedly cut and pasted nearly identical diagnoses, symptoms, background and vital signs on claim forms.

Several patients whom a detective interviewed said they went to the medical office on North Federal Highway because they heard "that Dr. Citrin was easy to get drugs from," the report said.

Investigators said the alleged fraudulent claims made by Citrin for the 78 patients totaled $449,666.70. Two other cases of alleged fraud by Citron against Blue Shield Blue Cross totaled more than $100,000.

Authorities obtained a warrant and searched Citrin's office on March 14, 2018.

During the search, detectives uncovered emails between Citron and a person whose job it was to follow up with insurance companies over unpaid bills. The person told investigators that after reviewing claim forms, he realized many were duplicated or "cookie cutter" records and approached Citrin, the report said.

Citron allegedly admitted to fabricating the claims but continued the alleged scheme, the report said.

Aside from the billings to Blue Cross Blue Shield,Citrin also defrauded two other insurance companies, according to law enforcement.

Cigna found $185,323.18 in phony claims for 19 patients between June 2015 and January 2018.

Humana reported $106,770.03 in fraudulent billing during the same period.

In the "about us" section of a webpage devoted to his medical practice, Citrin is credited with receiving his medical degree from Nova Southeastern University of Osteopathic Medicine.

A telephone call to Citron's office resulted in a recording that the number has been disconnected.

[email protected]

@caneswatch

Listen to today's top stories from The Palm Beach Post:

___

(c)2020 The Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, Fla.)

Visit The Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, Fla.) at www.palmbeachpost.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.