Rodney L. Yentzer, age 52, of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, was charged in a criminal information with one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, and one count of theft of public money for defrauding Medicare and the US Department of Health and Human Services between 2016 and 2020. The information alleges that Yentzer agreed with others to defraud Medicare by submitting bill for medically unnecessary urine drug tests for chronic opioid patients at medical clinics he controlled, including a group of clinics known as Pain Medicine of York or “PMY” (also known as All Better Wellness). It is alleged that PMY billed Medicare for more than $10 million in urine drug tests from mid-2017 through the end of 2019. As a result, Medicare paid out over $4 million for these urine drug tests. Pennsylvania’s Medicaid program was also billed for urine drug tests during this same time period. The urine drug tests ordered by PMY were sent to an in-house laboratory at PMY whenever possible. As a result, when medically unnecessary tests were billed to Medicare, the proceeds from them went to PMY itself.
The information also alleges that Yentzer received over $191,000 in US Department of Health and Human Services stimulus money that was intended for healthcare providers who had healthcare related expenses and lost revenues attributable to COVID-19. Yentzer obtained these funds in April 2020, even though he had resigned from PMY the prior month and PMY had been closed since late 2019. Yentzer allegedly used these funds on various things unrelated to COVID-19 relief, including personal expenses.
