A Pennsylvania doctor and his wife were charged for their roles in schemes to solicit and receive kickbacks and bribes in exchange for ordering genetic tests. Yitzchok “Barry” Kurtzer, 61, and Robin Kurtzer, 60, both of Monsey, New York, are charged by indictment with various counts for participating in a scheme to solicit and receive kickbacks and bribes in exchange for ordering genetic tests. Yitzchok Kurtzer is also charged with healthcare fraud related to the kickback scheme. Two of Yitzchok Kurtzer’s employees, Amber Harris and Shanelyn Kennedy, have each previously pleaded guilty for their roles in the kickback scheme, and Lee Besen and Kimberly Schmidt have also each previously pleaded guilty for a related cash-for-genetic tests scheme. Sentencings for each of those defendants is pending. Yitzchok Kurtzer was a primary care physician with separate offices in the Scranton, Pennsylvania, area. Robin Kurtzer helped manage those offices.
Yitzchok Kurtzer correlated genetic test swab collection to bribe and kickback payments, regardless of medical necessity. He instructed his staff to stop collecting genetic test swabs when he missed receiving a bribe and kickback payment, and he increased the volume of genetic test swabs when the kickback and bribe payments resumed. He admitted in a recording that he provided a patient false information to get the patient to agree to be swabbed for a genetic test. And unless a patient actively sought their genetic test results, Yitzchok Kurtzer failed to review or otherwise use those results.
Even as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic substantially reduced in-patient visits, the Kurtzers continued their scheme. They went from receiving hand-delivered cash kickbacks and bribes to accepting payments by wire and through a cell phone money-transfer app. Yitzchok Kurtzer also offered to pay one of his employees to collect genetic test swabs from all of his patients who lived in nursing homes. As a result of these schemes, Medicare was billed over $1.3 million for tests generated from Yitzchok Kurtzer’s practice.
