HARRISBURG, PA — Florentina Mayko, a 40-year-old resident of Cambria County, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 30 months in prison on December 14, 2023, by U.S. District Judge Yvette Kane. In June 2023, Mayko pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. She admitted to defrauding Medicare and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services between 2017 and 2019.
Mayko, as the Chief Executive Officer of medical clinics including Pain Medicine of York or “PMY” (also known as All Better Wellness), submitted medically unnecessary urine drug tests for chronic opioid patients. This fraudulent activity was part of a scheme she had agreed upon with others.
Mayko took over as the CEO of PMY in January 2018. Prior to this, she served as Director of Operations of a group of medical practices, referred to as “Practice Group 1.” She was hired for Practice Group 1 by an individual identified as Physician 1, who was later jailed for healthcare fraud and federal tax offenses in mid-2017.
The owner of PMY, Rodney L. Yentzer, separately admitted to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering for participating in the same scheme. Yentzer is yet to be sentenced.
Despite being confronted multiple times about the illegal nature of their company’s billing practices, Mayko and Yentzer continued to order numerous urine drug tests for each patient at every PMY office visit, despite a lack of medical necessity.
PMY billed Medicare for more than $10 million in urine drug tests from mid-2017 through the end of 2019. Medicare paid out over $5 million for these tests. The proceeds from these unnecessary tests went directly to PMY, with a significant portion going to Yentzer and Mayko. In 2018 and 2019 alone, Mayko earned around half a million dollars per year and used these funds to purchase several investment properties.
Judge Kane also ordered Mayko to pay $1,408,976.48 in restitution and forfeit several properties located in Ocean City, Maryland, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to the United States.
The case was investigated by multiple agencies including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration Diversion Control Program, and the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ravi Romel Sharma and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Smultkis prosecuted the case.
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