SANTA ANA - (INT) - The former CFO of a Long Beach hospital, two orthopedic surgeons and two others have been charged in long-running health care fraud schemes.

Those scams illegally referred thousands of patients for spinal surgeries and generated nearly $600 million in fraudulent billings over an eight-year period, according to the US Attorney's office.

The schemes involved tens of millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks to dozens of doctors, chiropractors and others. As a result of the illegal payments, thousands of patients were referred to Pacific Hospital in Long Beach, where they underwent spinal surgeries that led to more than $580 million in bills being fraudulently submitted during the last eight years of the scheme alone. Many of the fraudulent claims were paid by the California worker’s compensation system and the federal government.

Two of the defendants have already admitted their guilt and three others have agreed to plead guilty in the coming weeks. All five have agreed to cooperate in the government’s ongoing investigation into kickbacks for patient referrals and fraudulent bills for spinal surgeries.

Story Date: November 29, 2015