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Valley Businesswoman Gets Prison for Medicare Fraud

A San Fernando Valley businesswoman has been sentenced to nearly seven years in prison for defrauding Medicare of almost $10 million, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles. Susanna Artsruni, 46, of North Hollywood, owned Midvalley Medical Supply in Van Nuys and worked at several medical clinics. In an earlier plea agreement, she admitted that physician assistants at three clinics signed prescriptions and orders for medically unnecessary equipment and tests. Sometimes she ran the bogus bills through her company, while at other times, the prescriptions were sent to outside companies that billed Medicare. The fraudulent bills totaled $24.8 million, of which Medicare paid $9.6 million. U.S. District Court Judge Margaret Morrow sentenced Artsuni on Monday and ordered her to pay $9.6 million in restitution to the government medical program for seniors. Charges have been filed against three other people involved with the money laundering and health care fraud schemes of Artsruni. The cases were investigated by the FBI, IRS and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Joel Russel
Joel Russel
Joel Russell joined the Los Angeles Business Journal in 2006 as a reporter. He transferred to sister publication San Fernando Valley Business Journal in 2012 as managing editor. Since he assumed the position of editor in 2015, the Business Journal has been recognized four times as the best small-circulation tabloid business publication in the country by the Alliance of Area Business Publishers. Previously, he worked as senior editor at Hispanic Business magazine and editor of Business Mexico.

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