Hudson Valley Doctor, Wife Plead In $1.3 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — A doctor and his wife who worked in Pennsylvania have admitted their roles in schemes to solicit and receive kickbacks and bribes in exchange for ordering genetic tests, prosecutors announced Wednesday.

"Ripping off the federal government may not have a direct impact on the patient," said FBI – Newark Special Agent in Charge James E. Dennehy in the announcement. "It does, however, erode the faith we all have in the healthcare industry, and causes costs to go up for us all."

Rockland County residents Yitzchok 'Barry" Kurtzer and his wife, Robin Kurtzer pleaded guilty this week in Trenton, New Jersey to an indictment charging them with conspiracy to violate the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute.

Two of Barry Kurtzer’s employees, Amber Harris and Shanelyn Kennedy, have each pleaded guilty for their roles in the kickback scheme, and Dr. Lee Besen and Kimberly Schmidt have also each pleaded guilty for a related cash-for-genetic tests scheme.

Sentencings for each of those four is pending, prosecutors said.

"The defendants admitted that they and others worked together to solicit and accept kickbacks in exchange for referring expensive tests to particular labs. Bribes and kickbacks have no place in a doctor’s office," said U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger. "Patients need to be sure that their doctor is acting in their interest, uncorrupted by the promise of lucrative bribes and kickbacks."

According to documents in the case:

Barry Kurtzer, 63, was a primary care physician with offices in the Scranton, Pennsylvania, area. Robin Kurtzer, 62, helped manage those offices.

Beginning in 2018, Barry and Robin Kurtzer solicited and received monthly cash kickbacks and bribes in exchange for collecting DNA samples from Medicare patients and sending them for genetic tests to clinical laboratories in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

The Kurtzers used their employees in the scheme, including Harris and Kennedy, who each helped collect the DNA swabs in exchange for payments to them. The cash kickbacks ranged up to $5,000, and the Kurtzers typically accepted the cash in one of Barry Kurtzer’s offices, at times behind locked doors.

At one point, the Kurtzers complained that they were not getting paid enough and negotiated for higher kickbacks and bribes.

"Criminals forget there is a paper trail, and our job in the FBI is to follow it until we catch the culprit," Dennehy said.

As a result of these schemes, Medicare was billed over $1.3 million for tests generated from Barry Kurtzer’s practice.

The charge of conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute is punishable by a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison, and a maximum fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense, whichever is greatest.

The Kurtzers are scheduled to be sentenced March 28.