EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Two men accused of orchestrating a multi-million dollar healthcare fraud scheme surrendered to FBI in El Paso last week, federal prosecutors announced.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas identified Jose Huerta, 58, as the Chief Executive Officer for two long-term acute care hospitals in El Paso. Israel Navarro, 47, owned one of the hospitals and was financially connected to the other.
According to an indictment filed on June 25, Huerta and Navarro submitted false insurance claims in a scheme involving “pass-through billing of urine drug tests.”
Prosecutors allege that from late 2023 through early 2024, Huerta and Navarro conspired to bill Blue Cross Blue Shield for UDTs that were never performed on hospital patients or on any legitimate patients at all.
The claims further indicated that urine drug test samples were taken from the patients and forwarded to a lab in the Dallas area. However, none of this was true, the U.S. Attorney’s Office noted in their new release.
Over a six-month period, Huerta and Navarro submitted $16 million in claims for laboratory testing of urine drug tests. The actual loss to Blue Cross Blue Shield attributed to Huerta’s and Navarro’s alleged fraud scheme totaled more than $12 million.
Navarro surrendered to federal authorities and made his initial appearance on Tuesday, July 22. He pleaded not guilty and was released on a $150,000 bond.
Huerta also surrendered to FBI in El Paso and made his initial appearance on Thursday, July 24, and was released on a $50,000 bond.
Both men were charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
If convicted, they face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count.
KTSM 9 News is working on gathering more information on which medical facility was involved in the alleged fraud. According to the federal indictment, records were sealed and are inaccessible.
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