A husband and wife that owned Middletown’s Middlesex Rheumatology have agreed to pay nearly $5 million to resolve claims they filed false Medicaid claims that helped them obtain millions of dollars worth or prescription medications, prosecutors say.
Dr. Crispin Abarientos and Dr. Antonieta Abarientos owned and operated Middlesex Rheumatology, 80 East Main St., which specialized in the diagnosis and treatment of arthritis, autoimmune diseases and related conditions, federal and state officials said Monday. Crispin Abarientos served as the treating physician and Antonieta Abarientos was a part owner of the medical practice.
According to investigators, Crispin Abarientos, who was sentenced to 37 months in prison last fall on related fraud charges, had been prescribing an injectable prescription medication known as Remicade to treat rheumatoid arthritis between 2013 and 2018.
While treating Medicaid patients with the drug, he was required to submit a claim to Connecticut Medicaid on behalf of each patient. Medicaid would then pay a Massachusetts specialty pharmacy to deliver the Remicade order to Middlesex Rheumatology for the Medicaid patient at no cost.
Investigators allege the couple filed false claims to Medicaid seeking deliveries of Remicade for their Medicaid patients. However, Crispin Abarientos filed the claims even though he knew patients were not being treated with the drug.Â
He then infused the Remicade he obtained from Medicaid into Medicare patients and patients covered by the state of Connecticut’s employee health plan, and submitted claims for reimbursements for the cost of the drug and kept the profits for himself and the practice, officials say.
“Physicians who participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs must bill their services honestly, and the failure to do so increases the cost of health care for all of us,” said U.S. Attorney John H. Durham. “Health care providers who submit false claims to federal health care programs face serious consequences.”
The case was investigated by the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the FBI.Â
