A Middletown doctor has pleaded guilty to filing false Medicaid claims that prosecutors say helped him fraudulently obtain nearly $900,000 worth of prescription medications.
Dr. Crispin Abarientos, 44, of Middletown, was charged Wednesday in Hartford federal court with one count of healthcare fraud for reporting to Medicaid false claims as the owner and operator of Middlesex Rheumatology at 80 East Main St., the Connecticut U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Abarientos faces up to 10 years of imprisonment at his scheduled sentencing on Oct. 30.
According to investigators, from Sept. 2013 to Jan. 2018, Abarientos and his medical practice submitted to Connecticut’s Medicaid program false claims for the delivery of Remicade, an injectable prescription medication used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, on behalf of his Medicaid patients, even though they weren’t being treated with the drug.
Medicaid sent payment to Caremark Massachusetts Specialty Pharmacy, which delivered the Remicade contained in the claim to Middlesex Rheumatology for the Medicaid patient without any out-of-pocket expense to Abarientos.
The scheme reaped Abarientos approximately $894,789 of Remicade, which he used to infuse into Medicare patients or patients with commercial insurers, and submitted claims to those insurers for reimbursement, which he kept as a profit, prosecutors said.
Abarientos attempted to hide the scheme from investigators by submitting falsified documents that made it appear as though patients he used to obtain the Remicade from Medicaid were being treated with the medication when they were not.
The scheme is being investigated by the FBI, Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the Chief State’s Attorney’s Office and the Connecticut Office of the Attorney General.Â
