Couple is guilty of medical insurance fraud to pregnant Mexicans
A couple of Latinos declared themselves guilty of using pregnant women who lived in Mexico to cheat for more than one million dollars to California's public insurance by selling medical care to the mothers to give birth in the United States as a private service.
Melissa Álvarez Torres, 33, and José Luis Olmos Hernández, 36, both residents of California, declared themselves guilty on Monday afternoon of conspiracy charges to commit electronic fraud and fraud to the public health service of California, Medical, saidThe San Diego Union Tribune newspaper.
The plan focused on selling pregnant women, who resided in Mexico and had tourism or work visas, private health insurance to give birth to their babies.
But the service that women really used was a public medical care program with state and federal funds to help Mothers of California of average income that do not have adequate insurance to cover maternity and postpartum care services.
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The couple promoted insurance on Facebook with the name of American pregnancy insurance.Álvarez and Olmos falsely affirmed that their product would allow these pregnant women to give birth legally in the United States without endangering their visas, the Department of Justice (DOJ) explained when making the accusation in September 2020.
The couple charged pregnant women a false insurance premium between 1.200 and 3.000 dollars, according to the accusation.
In addition to falsifying the residence of pregnant women, the couple also used false documents as letters of alleged employers to get their requests to be approved.
Between January 2016 and September 2020, Álvarez and Olmos submitted more than 250 fraudulent applications to the Medical.Most were approved.
The insurance program paid more than one million dollars to cover medical expenses related to pregnancy in the case of fraud.
The couple agreed to pay 1.5 million in restitution to the State and women, the newspaper stressed.Álvarez and Olmos face up to 20 years in a federal prison when they are sentenced next October.
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