Florida man accused of submitting $25M in fraudulent Medicare claims through Ellwood City hospital

A Florida businessman has been charged in federal court in Pittsburgh with conspiring to submit $25 million in fraudulent Medicare claims through an Ellwood City hospital for unnecessary cancer genome screenings.

Daniel Hurt, 58, of Fort Lauderdale, is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, pay and receive illegal kickbacks and money laundering.

Hurt is charged through a criminal information, which typically means that the person is planning to plead guilty.

The U.S. Attorney’s office said that between late 2018 and October 2019, Hurt participated in a conspiracy related to Medicare billing for cancer genomic testing, which uses DNA sequencing to detect mutations that could indicate an increased risk for certain cancers.

The government alleges that Hurt and his co-conspirators — including people associated with marketing firms — acquired thousands of cheek swabs from Medicare beneficiaries across the country either by sending kits to their homes or at purported health fairs.

Hurt then had the specimens sent to Ellwood City Medical Center, even though the facility did not have the proper equipment to do any such testing on-site.

Instead, Hurt directed the staff at the hospital to repackage the samples and send them to third-party labs.

To justify the Medicare reimbursement, prosecutors said, Hurt and the others obtained prescriptions for the testing from telemedicine physicians who were not treating the patients for cancer or symptoms of cancer and did not conduct appropriate exams.

The government said that Hurt caused Ellwood City Medical Center to submit Medicare claims for the testing that regularly exceeded $12,000 per patient.

Between January and October 2019, the information said, Medicare reimbursed the facility more than $25 million for the testing, submitted on behalf of more than 4,000 people.

During the same time, the government said, Hurt directed the hospital staff to transfer million of dollars to bank accounts that he controlled.

He, in turn, used funds from Ellwood City Medical Center to pay millions of dollars in kickbacks to the marketers who obtained the testing samples, the information said.

Hurt disguised the kickbacks by entering into sham contracts with the marketers, the government said.

The information alleges that Hurt used about $3 million in payments to purchase a luxury watercraft in Florida that he named “In My DNA.”

As part of the case against Hurt, the government is seeking forfeiture of the boat.

Ellwood City Medical Center closed in late 2019. Its owners, Americore Holdings, filed for bankruptcy on Dec. 31, 2019.

According to federal bankruptcy court records, California-based Pelorus Equity Group Inc. bought the former hospital property last month.