Amtrak Bilked Out Of $12m By At Least 119 Employees, Doctors In Fraud Scheme; Many Still On The Job: Report

At slightest 119 Amtrak labor and doctors took nan railroad institution for a thrust successful a monolithic $12 cardinal wellness fraud scheme, a watchdog found. 

Amtrak's Office of Inspector General (OIG) said labor based successful Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Connecticut and Washington, D.C., accepted rate kickbacks from 3 healthcare providers successful speech for nan usage of their security accusation and that of their dependents successful a strategy from 2019 to 2022.

"The sheer measurement of labor who cavalierly participated successful this strategy to bargain Amtrak’s costs suggests not only a superior lapse successful basal ethics, but a troubling workforce culture, astatine slightest successful nan Northeast region, successful which blatant criminal behaviour was someway normalized," said Amtrak Inspector General Kevin H. Winters. 

Fox News Digital has reached retired to Amtrak. 

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Amtrak ran work betwixt Chicago and Florida successful nan 1970s.  (Amtrak)

The healthcare providers utilized that worker accusation to record fraudulent and questionable aesculapian claims for services that were ne'er provided aliases not medically necessary, nan OIG said. Overall, nan taxpayer-funded railroad carrier's wellness scheme was billed much than $16 cardinal and was bilked retired of $12 million. 

Of nan 119 labor implicated, 28 retired aliases resigned arsenic a consequence of nan OIG’s investigation, and 30 near nan institution for "other reasons." Another twelve labor person been criminally charged, and 7 person pleaded blameworthy and are awaiting sentencing.

Sixty-one are still connected nan job. 

In a connection to Fox News Digital, Amtrak said it has taken "significant steps" to reside aesculapian security fraud. 

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An Amtrak train astatine Penn Station successful New York City.  (Getty Images)

"Like galore employers, Amtrak calls connected aesculapian use providers and insurers to do much to place suspicious activity and extremity aesculapian security fraud," nan institution said. "Amtrak powerfully condemns this reprehensible enactment that occurred betwixt 2019 and 2022 and is taking swift action pinch each progressive labor progressive successful nan investigation. 

"While we proceed to activity intimately pinch nan OIG to place and stamp retired fraud, we besides proceed to activity connected different initiatives to reside this issue," nan connection added. "Amtrak has implemented various measures to heighten fraud prevention and empower labor to study suspected wrongdoing. These efforts see expanding oversight and strengthening efforts to destruct fraudulent schemes."

Canceled trains are displayed connected an Amtrak departures committee successful Moynihan Train Hall astatine Penn Station successful New York Dec. 23, 2024.  (Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The OIG launched a probe erstwhile an supplier noticed different billing patterns successful reports by information analysts. Three New York healthcare providers pinch "questionable" billings who shared a precocious number of Amtrak labor arsenic patients were identified by investigators. 

An undercover supplier posing arsenic an Amtrak worker met pinch Punson Figueroa, aka "Susie," an acupuncturist from Long Island City, New York, June 16, 2021. During nan visit, Figueroa told nan supplier to motion his sanction 30 times for work without making love nan signatures, nan OIG said. 

Figueroa past submitted alleged fraudulent claims to Amtrak’s healthcare plan, saying nan supplier had visited providers astatine slightest 7 times successful May 2021 for acupuncture and beingness therapy. The supplier visited Figueroa’s agency again connected July 29, 2021, wherever she allegedly handed him an letter cover containing $1,000. 

Figueroa continued to usage nan agent’s security accusation to taxable dozens of fraudulent claims to Amtrak’s healthcare plan, investigators said. 

Figueroa pleaded blameworthy to defrauding Amtrak’s healthcare plan, was sentenced to 3 years of supervised merchandise and was ordered to salary restitution of $9.05 million. Two different healthcare providers and a aesculapian biller person besides pleaded blameworthy for their roles successful nan scheme.

Authorities successful North Tonawanda said a Niagara-bound Amtrak train struck a rider conveyance May 17, 2024. (WKBW Buffalo)

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Michael DeNicola, a podiatrist from New York, pleaded blameworthy June 29, 2022, to conspiracy to perpetrate wellness attraction fraud, distribution of a controlled constituent and unlawful possession of a gun. He has not yet been sentenced. 

Regina Choi, a aesculapian biller from Woodside, New York, who antecedently worked for Figueroa, pleaded blameworthy to conspiracy to perpetrate wellness attraction fraud June 11, 2024, for submitting mendacious and fraudulent claims to nan Amtrak wellness attraction scheme and paying rate kickbacks to Amtrak employees. Her condemnation is besides pending. 

In 2018 and 2019, OIG auditors issued abstracted reports that said Amtrak could fortify measures to place fraudulent aesculapian claims sooner. Both reports noted billing patterns suggestive of imaginable fraud among hundreds of providers, nan OIG said.