Vernon Hills Residents Among 5 Charged in Health Care Fraud Scheme

An office manager from Vernon Hills and a Vernon Hills ultrasound office are among five charged in health care fraud scheme.

Charges stem from accusations that a Wheeling chiropractor and his brother and father are accused of bilking insurance carriers out of of more than $10.8 million by billing the insurance companies for treatment that was medically unnecessary or never performed, according to a FBI press release.

Vladimir Gordin, Jr., 45, of Northbrook; operated Gordin Medical Center, 350 E. Dundee Road in Wheeling, along with his father, Vladimir Gordin, Sr., 68, of Riverwoods; and his brother, Alexsander Gordin, 32, of Northbrook. The trio are accused of falsely billing medical services that weren’t provided and fabricating their patients’ medical records to cover up the scam, according to a 21-count indictment returned Sunday in federal court in Chicago.

The FBI press release states:

In some cases, patients knew of the overbilling and were incentivized to participate by having their deductibles met at no cost to them or by sharing in a portion of the overbilling proceeds via checks provided to them by the Gordins, according to the indictment. Over a six-year period, the Gordins’ scheme bilked insurance carriers out of more than $10.8 million, the indictment states.

Vladimir Gordin Jr. and Vladimir Gordin Sr. are each charged with 18 counts of health care fraud and three counts of aggravated identity theft. Alexsander Gordin is charged with 14 counts of health care fraud.

Two other defendants are also charged in the indictment: Alina Levit, 45, of Vernon Hills and Michelle Kobran, 67, of Vernon Hills. Levit worked for Gordin Medical Center as the office manager and Kobran owned and operated Ultrasound Mobile Service Ltd. in Vernon Hills.

Levit is accused of assisting the Gordins with falsifying medical records and creating phony “sign in” sheets, which falsely represented that patients were physically present and received certain health-care services on a given day, when, in fact, no such treatment was rendered, according to the indictment. Levit is charged with 14 counts of health care fraud.

Kobran is accused of billing insurance companies for medically unnecessary ultrasounds that were performed on patients referred to her company by the Gordins, according to the indictment. Kobran then kicked back a portion of the insurance proceeds to the Gordins, the indictment states. Kobran is charged with four counts of health care fraud.

From 2006 through approximately November 2012, Gordin Medical Center and Ultrasound Mobile Service submitted bills totaling $28,775,000, causing the carriers to pay $10,847,000, according to the FBI press release.

All five defendants will be arraigned on future dates to be set in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

The health care fraud counts carry a maximum penalty of ten years in prison and a $250,000 fine, while the aggravated identity theft counts are punishable by a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a statutory mandatory minimum sentence of two years, plus a $250,000 fine. If convicted, restitution is mandatory.