Doctor and others accused of $6.5 billion in fraud in South Florida and elsewhere

Jay Weaver, Miami HeraldMiami Herald

A Texas doctor accused of rubber-stamping cardiovascular screening tests performed by a South Florida diagnostic company for college athletes is among 455 healthcare-fraud defendants recently arrested on charges of billing $6.5 billion in false medical claims to public and private insurers, U.S. authorities said Tuesday.

Jason Finkelstein, 53, of Fort Worth, was released after pleading not guilty in West Palm Beach federal court on Monday to conspiring to commit healthcare fraud and related fraud charges. An indictment alleges he led an $89 million cardiovascular testing scheme targeting student athletes at colleges nationwide. One died soon after Finkelstein diagnosed his heart condition as “normal,” authorities said at a news conference in Washington, D.C.

Miami defense attorney Jonathan Meltz, who represents Finkelstein, declined to comment about his case. But Meltz is challenging a prosecutor’s proposed bond condition that his client not be allowed to practice medicine of any kind while he awaits a trial scheduled for Aug. 10.

According to an indictment, Finkelstein conspired with others in South Florida to use two of his Texas-based companies to submit insurance claims for cardiovascular tests such as EKGs that were conducted by an unnamed diagnostic company in Boca Raton. The company’s name is Cappo Health, the Miami Herald has learned, and Finkelstein was its medical director. In turn, the federally funded Medicaid program and other insurers paid $13.1 million of Finkelstein’s test claims.

The indictment alleges that Finkelstein was the only referring doctor for Cappo’s claims between 2019 and 2025, but he did not conduct any clinical examinations to determine whether the student athletes had a diagnosis that warranted the cardiovascular tests. The claims allegedly included false diagnoses, such as hypertension, to induce insurance companies to pay for the tests. He is accused of signing and approving the claims within seconds of accessing them on his computer.

In October 2024, for example, Finkelstein concluded the cardiovascular test results of one student athlete were “normal,” even though some unconfirmed interpretations noted potential cardiovascular abnormalities such as an enlarged heart, the indictment alleges. About 24 days later, the student died from sudden cardiac arrest while exercising with his basketball team.

After he was informed of the student’s death, Finkelstein did not change his practice of signing and approving the cardiovascular test results without meaningfully reviewing them, federal authorities said. His two Texas companies, Cardiovascular Testing Services PA and Cardiovascular Healthcare Associates PA, continued to bill insurers for them.

Altogether, the Justice Department listed about 20 defendants in healthcare-fraud cases across Florida as being among the 455 individuals charged nationwide during a two-week federal enforcement operation, authorities announced at the news conference. Finkelstein is among 90 medical professionals charged in healthcare-fraud cases from Florida to California.

Among other notable South Florida defendants: Ibrahim Hilmi, 58, of Miami, who was charged in connection with a multibillion-dollar false-claims case involving massive billing to Medicare and Medicaid for wound dressings and medical supplies that authorities say were never provided to patients. Although the defendant fled after he and others were charged last year, Hilmi was arrested in Kyrenia, Cyprus, and made his initial appearance on Monday in a South Florida federal court.

Healthcare fraud has been a perennial priority for the Justice Department, with South Florida consistently leading the nation as the capital of schemes aimed at Medicare, the federal insurance program for the elderly, and Medicaid, the state-run system for the indigent. The crisis grew so acute 20 years ago that the department began establishing strike forces of FBI and Health and Human Services agents in hotspots across the country. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida created the first healthcare fraud strike force in 2007.

“Today’s cases allege more than the theft of taxpayer dollars. Many allege the theft of human dignity,” Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald said at the news conference Tuesday announcing this year’s crackdown, which covers cases charged or unsealed since June 8. “Our sick, needy and elderly placing their faith in the gift of medicine were neglected, ignored and used for personal profit.”

In Miami, U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones reinforced that view. “If you choose to exploit our health care system for personal gain, expect to lose your money, your assets, and your freedom,” he said in a news release.

In Finkelstein’s case, the indictment not only highlights the cardiologist but also lists two unnamed co-conspirators, one from Broward County and the other from Palm Beach County. They allegedly blasted emails to athletic trainers at colleges, stating that the cardiovascular tests could identify any life-threatening condition that could prevent the students from playing. They also offered kickbacks and other inducements to school officials to refer potential patients for testing, according to the indictment.

Insurers do not cover blanket cardiovascular testing, but instead require a prior finding of a medical necessity. To overcome that hurdle, authorities said, Finkelstein submitted phony diagnoses of conditions, such as hypertension, that the athletes did not have.

His companies relied on sonographers who lacked the credentials to travel to college campuses to perform the tests. But because Finkelstein was licensed in the 48 contiguous states, he and his companies were able to submit claims for patients across the country, the indictment said.

“The indictment alleges that the defendant routinely approved the cardiovascular test images as ‘normal’ within seconds of viewing them,” a Justice Department prosecutor wrote in a court filing. “The defendant did this even though he understood that some of the student athletes could, in fact, have cardiac issues.

“The defendant wrote to co-conspirator 1 seeking malpractice insurance and stated “[t]hese kids could be high risk . . . [o]ne of them drops dead on a field, they’re coming after us.”

In the 2024 incident highlighted by authorities, Finkelstein is accused of signing off on about 63 test-result images of one student athlete just 11 seconds after accessing them on his computer. The test results revealed a significantly enlarged heart — yet Finkelstein said his condition was normal— and the teenager died less than a month later on a basketball court, authorities said.

The court filing shows that in messages sent after the student athlete’s death, a Cappo Health employee wrote to an unnamed co-conspirator: “[l]ooks like it was f[***]ing missed ekg says its large . . . If it was flagged kid prob wouldn’t have died.”

At the news conference in Washington, a top Trump administration official zeroed in on the student athlete’s enlarged-heart condition.

“There is no way they could miss that, except they didn’t care,” said Dr. Mehmet Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon and head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. “This is not a diagnostic company. It’s a predatory scheme dressed up in medical clothing, and we’re going to treat it as such.”

In another notable case, a Las Vegas nurse practitioner was charged in a $906 million Medicare and TRICARE fraud scheme involving billing for medically unnecessary amniotic wound allografts — a crime symptomatic of a viral trend that authorities say has spread across the country.

Prosecutors allege Marizel Yukee, 49, who ran mobile wound clinics in four states, targeted elderly and hospice patients and falsified records to justify the procedures while billing for the unnecessary treatments. Her scheme also entailed the payment of bribes and kickbacks, according to prosecutors.

Investigators seized about $35.2 million in assets, including $467,000 in cash, eight vehicles, including a $594,000 Ferrari 296 GTS, and jewelry, including a $865,000 Bulgari necklace.