A Houston physician is facing a 12-count federal indictment after prosecutors accused him and others of billing a federal COVID-19 reimbursement program approximately $30 million for medical office visits that patients never received.
Dr. Joseph A. Montes, 66, owned and operated Joseph A. Montes MD & Associates, P.A. and Montes Medical PLLC. Prosecutors say he allowed co-conspirators to operate pop-up COVID-19 testing sites under his name while claims connected to those operations were submitted to the federal Health Resources and Services Administration.
Patients went to the temporary sites for nasal swab testing, but the indictment alleges that HRSA was billed for evaluation and management office visits that did not actually take place, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas…