Rockland Doctor, Wife Accused In $1.3 Million Genetic Test Scheme

NEW JERSEY — A doctor from Monsey and his wife are accused of an illegal kickback scheme involving genetic testing that cost Medicare $1.3 million.

Yitzchok “Barry” Kurtzer, 61, was a primary care physician with separate offices in the Scranton, Pennsylvania, area. Robin Kurtzer, 60 helped manage those offices, Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Rachael Honig said in an announcement Friday.

Prosecutors allege that beginning in 2018, the Kurtzers solicited and received monthly cash kickbacks and bribes in exchange for collecting samples from Medicare patients regardless of medical necessity and sending them for genetic tests to clinical laboratories in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The cash kickbacks ranged up to $5,000, and the Kurtzers typically accepted the cash in one of Yitzchok Kurtzer’s offices, at times behind locked doors. At one point, the Kurtzers complained that they were not getting paid enough and negotiated for higher kickbacks and bribes.

The Kurtzers were recorded receiving and discussing many of their kickback and bribe payments, prosecutors said. They allege that after Yitzchok Kurtzer accepted a $5,000 cash kickback, he counted the money and said, “Perfect. Didn’t short me.”

Also, unless a patient actively sought their genetic test results, Yitzchok Kurtzer failed to review or otherwise use those results, prosecutors said.

Yitzchok Kurtzer told his staff to stop collecting swabs when he missed receiving a bribe, and increased the volume when the kickback and bribe payments resumed, prosecutors said. When the coronavirus pandemic substantially reduced in-patient visits in 2020, the Kurtzers went from receiving hand-delivered cash to accepting payments by wire and through a cell phone money-transfer app, prosecutors said.

Yitzchok Kurtzer also offered to pay one of his employees to collect genetic test swabs from all of his patients who lived in nursing homes, prosecutors said.

Both Kurtzers were indicted Friday on charges including kickback conspiracy, violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute, illegal remunerations for referrals to laboratories and violations of the Travel Act. Yitzchok Kurtzer was also charged with health care fraud.

The kickbacks, illegal remunerations, and health care fraud charges are each punishable by a maximum of 10 years in prison. The kickback conspiracy and Travel Act charges are each punishable by a maximum of five years in prison. All 11 counts are also punishable by a $250,000 fine, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense.

Two of Yitzchok "Barry" Kurtzer’s employees, Amber Harris and Shanelyn Kennedy, have each pleaded guilty for their roles in the fraud, and Lee Besen and Kimberly Schmidt have also each previously pleaded guilty for a related cash-for-genetic tests scheme. Sentencings are pending.