Women’s health boutique manager charged with fraud
By HME News Staff
Updated 10:59 AM CDT, Wed July 24, 2024
CHICAGO — The office manager for a suburban Chicago medical equipment boutique has been indicted on federal health care fraud charges for allegedly billing private insurers for products that were never provided, including breast prostheses, compression garments and wigs for cancer survivors. Judy Strzelecki, who worked at A Woman’s Place in Downer’s Grove, Ill., is accused of submitting fraudulent claims from 2015 to 2020 to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois and other health care benefit programs for equipment that was either not provided or was not medically necessary, according to an indictment returned in U.S. District Court in Chicago. Strzelecki and others also fraudulently billed the programs for more expensive products than were provided to seek higher reimbursement rates, the indictment states. As a result of the scheme, Strzelecki and others fraudulently obtained at least $1.8 million in payments from health care programs for equipment that was not provided as billed, the indictment states. She is charged with seven counts of health care fraud. Each count is punishable by up to 10 years in federal prison, and restitution is mandatory. Arraignment is set for July 23, 2024, before U.S. Magistrate Judge M. David Weisman.
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