A 53-year-old Houston businessman has been sentenced to four years in prison for fraudulently billing Medicare and Medicaid for opioid addiction treatment services that were never provided to patients.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday it had sentenced Michael Bregenzer and two men from Kentucky, José Alzadon, 62, and Barbie Vanhoose, 63, for their roles in running a scheme that falsely bilked more than $4.8 million from the taxpayer-funded health programs. The three had been convicted of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy to distribute controlled substances using the registration number of another person.
Bregenzer’s sentence includes three years of supervised release. Alzadon was sentenced to 60 months in prison, and Vanhoose to two years in prison.
According to evidence from a March trial, the three ran the scheme through their Kentucky Addiction Centers, a treatment provider that operated in four Kentucky cities. Bregenzer served as the company’s CEO, Alzadon as its medical director and Vanhoose as the billing manager.
The group billed Medicare and Medicaid for medical services that were not provided or more complex and expensive services than those that patients received.
They also conspired to use the Drug Enforcement Administration registration number Alzadon’s father had — which legally allows him to write prescriptions for controlled substances — to prescribe opioid addiction medication Suboxone for patients Alzadon’s father had not seen.
As a result, both Alzadon and Vanhoose were also convicted on two counts of aggravated identity theft. All three were also ordered to pay restitution of $812,881.09.