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Doctor Charged for Fake Flu Shots Given to Senior
Citizens
Oct. 31,205 – A doctor is accused of giving flu
shots of purified water, rather than flu vaccine, to at least 14 senior
citizens that lived in a nursing home near La Porte, Texas, and to more
than 1,000 employees of Exxon Mobile near Baytown. His motive, says the
government, was to defraud Medicare. The news created a scary vision for
many seniors this Halloween day.
"This is a callous and disturbing crime which put
at risk patients -- particularly the elderly -- who thought they had
been inoculated against the flu and were not," said U.S. Attorney Chuck
Rosenberg at a press conference this morning.
Iyad Abu Hawa, 35, was arrested last night on a
criminal complaint and charges were announced today. Rosenberg announced
the unsealing of a criminal charge filed against El Hawa for his role in
a scheme to defraud Medicare by administering fake flu vaccines at
company sponsored health fairs. El Hawa, held in federal custoney, is
expected to appear before a United States Magistrate Judge this
afternoon. At that time the United States will seek his detention
without bail pending further criminal proceedings.
KTRK-TV reports from Baytown that no one has shown
any ill effects from the fake shots.
The arrest of El Hawa is the result of an
investigation conducted jointly by agents and investigators of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Food and Drug Administration Office
of Criminal Investigations, the Department of Health and Human Services
Office of Inspector General, the Texas Department of State Health
Services and the Texas Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit
with the invaluable assistance of the Harris County Public Health and
Environmental Services.
The criminal complaint accuses El Hawa of
attempting to execute a scheme to defraud the Medicare program by
attempting to bill the health care benefit program for administering a
flu vaccine to beneficiaries when, in fact, no flu vaccine was
administered. El Hawa is the owner of Comfort & Caring Home Health
("Comfort & Caring") located at 10101 Harwin, Suite 370, in Houston,
Texas, and operates two other home health centers, America Home Health
and Universal Home Health Care Services, with offices in the same
building.
A contract nurse hired by El Hawa to help give flu
vaccinations at the ExxonMobil plant in Baytown, Texas on Oct. 19 and
20, became alarmed upon learning from an employee of El Hawa that the
employee stayed up all night filling syringes in anticipation of the
ExxonMobil event, and was completely unfamiliar with the concept of a
lot number to identify vaccines.
Lot numbers are recorded when vaccinations are
administered as these numbers are used by manufacturer's to track and
identify the purchasers and ultimate users of a vaccine in the event of
a problem or issue. More than 1,000 ExxonMobil employees and contractors
were vaccinated during the course of the two day event. Moreover, the
nurse learned from El Hawa that he planned to conduct more "flu"
vaccinations at a church in Lake Charles, La., on Saturday, Oct. 22.
This event did not occur.
Concerned, the nurse reported the information and
delivered two of the syringes prepared for use at the ExxonMobil event
to the Federal Bureau of Investigation - Houston Division (FBI) on
Friday, Oct. 21. Additionally, the nurse advised the FBI that the
ExxonMobil event had been arranged by a female employee of a Baytown
physician. The FBI notified the Texas Department of State Health
Services (TxDSHS) which has regulatory authority over the home health
care business industry. Acting promptly on the information provided,
inspectors of the TxDSHS accompanied by FBI agents interviewed the
physician and his female employee and conducted an inspection of Comfort
&Caring.
According to the allegations in the complaint, upon
arriving at Comfort & Caring on Friday afternoon, inspectors and FBI
agents saw El Hawa throwing a bag of syringes into a dumpster located
across the street from his offices. The syringes -- 32 in number -- were
seized.
The complaint alleges that El Hawa arranged and
conducted various inoculations events including the ExxonMobil event in
which shots were falsely represented to be flu vaccines with the intent
to bill Medicare for the "service" to beneficiaries.
Inspectors located records which listed the names
and Medicare and Medicaid numbers of 14 senior citizens who had been
injected by El Hawa and his staff with the fake flu vaccine on Friday,
Oct. 21, but no addresses. By backtracking through Medicare/Medicaid
records, investigating agents ultimately identified the 14 as residents
of a senior housing facility in La Porte, Texas.
One of the two syringes provided by the concerned
nurse and ten of the syringes seized by investigators have been
submitted for laboratory analysis to the Food and Drug Administration's
Laboratory in Cincinnati. Preliminary reports have found that fluid
contained in the syringes is not the flu vaccine. Additional testing is
being conducted. As of late yesterday afternoon, preliminary results
indicate that the fluid contained in the syringes appears to be a
purified form of water. Additional testing is being done on the syringes
themselves.
Joined by Dr. Herminia Palacio, executive director
of the Harris County Public Health and Environmental Services, Rosenberg
emphasized the diligence and cooperation of federal, state and local law
enforcement and public health officials who have worked closely
together, stating, "Our ongoing investigation is proceeding on two
tracks -- to investigate those responsible for this dangerous fraud on
the public and to assess and mitigate the risks to the public health."
Medicare fraud carries a maximum penalty of up to
10 years imprisonment upon conviction and a $250,000 fine. If the
violation results in serious bodily injury, the punishment range
increases to a maximum of 20 years imprisonment. If the violation
results in death, the maximum penalty is life imprisonment.
A criminal complaint is merely an accusation and is
not evidence. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until
convicted through due process of law.
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