Aiza Rodriguez

In August 2006, couple Aiza Rodriguez and Daniel Guerra were indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, commit health care fraud, and pay kickbacks; health care fraud; conspiracy to commit money laundering; and money laundering. Investigators believe that Rodriguez and Guerra received more than $9 million in Medicare reimbursement for durable medical equipment (DME) that either was medically unnecessary or was never delivered to a qualified Medicare beneficiary.

Rodriguez owned the DME company, Brickell Orthopedic Store, Inc., while Guerra owned the DME company, Stephanie Medical Supplies, Corporation. Both companies were based in Miami, Florida. According to the indictment, Guerra and Rodriguez paid kickbacks and bribes to patient recruiters in return for providing their companies with Medicare beneficiaries whom they could use to bill Medicare. The beneficiaries were also paid and bribed in exchange for their Medicare identification numbers along with their prescriptions for DME and related services.

The defendants fraudulently completed Medicare-required orthotic measurement forms for DME without an orthotist or orthotic fitter ever having measured a patient. Guerra and Rodriguez then forged the signatures of doctors on DME prescriptions and paid doctors to sign blank certificates of medical necessity.