ALBANY, N.Y. (NEXSTAR) — A federal jury convicted 69‐year‐old Queens doctor Alexander Baldonado for a plot costing Medicare over $24 million. The prosecution succeeded in proving that he took cash kickbacks to order unnecessary lab tests and orthotic braces during COVID.
You can read the superseding indictment for Baldonado at the bottom of this story. All told, he faces up to 10 years in prison per fraud and kickback charge. The judge set June 26 for sentencing.
Baldonado accepted bribes from lab workers and a supply owner to order expensive cancer tests for phantom people he didn’t actually know. He held testing events at assisted living centers, adult day cares, and a retirement community in 2020, and briefly met “patients” there. Then, he billed Medicare for services he didn’t actually provide…