LOS ANGELES, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- California officials say two doctors used mentally ill homeless people to defraud the state and federal governments out of millions of dollars.
Authorities arrested Eleanor Santiago Arthur and Rodney Stephen Barron at a North Hollywood clinic Friday, saying they had "cappers" round up homeless people, on which they then performed unwarranted medical procedures, The Los Angeles Times reported.
In a complaint filed by Los Angeles Deputy City Attorney Carolyn Phillips, the "cappers" allegedly recruited people enrolled in Medicare and Medi-Cal from as far away as Long Beach and drove them to the Victory Boulevard clinic in exchange for a $100 fee.
The clinic billed the government for up to $1,000 worth of medical care per patient, and each physician saw 30 to 50 patients a day, the report said.
The investigation was conducted by the Los Angeles County Health Authority Law Enforcement Task Force and found that the scheme cheated the government out of millions of dollars over six months, officials said.
The physicians face up to seven years in prison if convicted of charges they conspired to cheat Medicare and Medi-Cal, the government medical insurance programs for seniors, the poor and the disabled, the newspaper said.
The physicians were being held in lieu of $500,000 bail each; four clinic workers were also arrested.
