U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe | U.S. Department of Justice
A Florida man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for his involvement in a scheme to defraud Medicare by billing over $67 million for unnecessary genetic testing. Jose Goyos, 38, from West Palm Beach, was part of a call center operation that made deceptive telemarketing calls targeting Medicare beneficiaries and their physicians.
Court documents revealed that Goyos managed the "doctor chase" division at the call center. This division contacted primary care physicians of targeted Medicare beneficiaries, misleading them into ordering genetic tests based on fabricated medical paperwork. Goyos instructed employees to falsely claim that these beneficiaries were "mutual patients" who had requested the tests and had medical conditions justifying them, neither of which was true.
Using these fraudulent orders, Goyos and his co-conspirators submitted claims to Medicare for costly genetic tests that were not medically necessary. These test results often did not reach the primary care physicians and were not used in patient treatment.
Between May 2020 and July 2021, over $67 million in false claims were submitted to Medicare, with more than $53 million paid out. In October 2023, a jury found Goyos guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.
Nine other Florida residents have also been sentenced for their roles in this conspiracy:
- Daniel M. Carver received 16 years and eight months.
- Thomas Dougherty was sentenced to 14 years.
- John Paul Gosney Jr. received seven years and eleven months.
- Galina Rozenberg got four years.
- Michael Rozenberg also received four years.
- Ethan Macier was sentenced to three years and nine months.
- Louis “Gino” Carver got two years and eight months.
- Ashley Cigarroa received two years and six months.
- Timothy Richardson was sentenced to two years.
The announcement came from U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida; Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri; Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey B. Veltri of the FBI Miami Field Office; and Special Agent in Charge Stephen Mahmood of HHS-OIG Miami Regional Office.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI and HHS-OIG. The case is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sara Klco, Marx Calderon, Sandra Dermici, Trial Attorneys Reginald Cuyler Jr., Andrew Tamayo, along with former Trial Attorney Patrick J. Queenan from the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.
The Fraud Section leads efforts against health care fraud through its Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program which has charged over 5,400 defendants since March 2007 for billing federal health care programs more than $27 billion collectively.
