Owner of St. Mary’s Ambulance Inc. Sentenced to Prison for Health Care Fraud Conviction

Topics:  St. Mary’s Ambulance

U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Texas
May 24, 2010

McALLEN, TX— Jesus Jorge Flores Jr., 38, the owner and operator of St. Mary’s Ambulance Inc., has been sentenced to prison for defrauding Medicare and Medicaid of more than $1 million by submitting false and fraudulent claims, United States Attorney José Angel Moreno and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced today.

United States District Judge Randy Crane sentenced Flores, of Weslaco, Texas, to 24 months in federal prison without parole during a sentencing hearing today. In addition to the prison term, Flores has been ordered to pay restitution to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the amount of $658,2581.13 and to serve a three-year-term of supervised release following the completion of his prison term. Flores pleaded guilty on July 7, 2008, to conspiracy to commit health care fraud -admitting that between February 2004 until September 2005 to having defrauding the two federal health care benefit programs by means of false and fraudulent claims in connection with the medically unnecessary delivery of ambulance transportation services to Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries to and from area hemodialysis centers.

Flores, who has been free on bond since his October 2007 arrest has been permitted to remain on bond until June 7, 2010, when he is ordered to surrender to the U.S. Marshals Service in McAllen, Texas, to be transported a Bureau of Prisons facility where he will serve his sentence.

The investigation leading to the charges in this case was conducted by FBI and the Texas Attorney General’s Office Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. Assistant United States Attorney Carolyn Ferko prosecuted the case.