Coral Springs woman indicted as ringleader of $58.3M Medicare fraud, feds say
A Coral Springs woman is facing federal charges for being the alleged ringleader of a $58.3 million Medicare billing fraud scheme, according to investigators.
A grand jury indicted Laura Seiler-Anstett with conspiracy to commit health care and wire fraud — and earning $1.8 million in the process, according to court documents.
“Laura is innocent and we will vigorously fight these charges and this indictment,” her attorney, Marissel Descalzo, told the Coral Springs News on Friday, June 26.
According to the indictment, Seiler-Anstett, 55, owned MedAct and Intellibill, two companies that submitted Medicare claims on behalf of medical equipment suppliers — mainly knee braces.
The indictment said that when she enrolled the companies with Medicare, she concealed their owners in an effort to evade fraud detection systems.
Seiler-Anstett then instructed the companies on how to deceptively obtain doctors’ referrals and orders, as well as telemarketers whose campaigns were “designed to trick and coerce elderly beneficiaries into agreeing to receive (medical equipment) that they did not want or need,” the indictment said.
She then filed fraudulent claims for the medical equipment on the companies’ behalf, according to federal prosecutors. Those claims allegedly totaled $58.3 million, approximately $30 million of which was paid, according to the United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Florida.
Seiler-Anstett allegedly took a cut of the payouts, and from August 2018 through June 2022 received nearly $1.8 million.
If convicted, Seiler-Anstett could get as many as 30 years in prison, six years of supervised release and a maximum $500,000 fine. However, there is no mandatory minimum sentence, according to court documents.
A trial has not been scheduled as of June 26.
