HARRISBURG — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - Pennsylvania, Middle), published as received.
HARRISBURG - The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Florentina Mayko, age 40, of Cambria County, Pennsylvania, was sentenced on December 14, 2023, by U.S. District Judge Yvette Kane to 30 months in prison. In June 2023, Mayko pleaded guilty to a one-count information charging her with conspiracy to commit health care fraud for defrauding Medicare and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services between 2017 and 2019.
According to United States Attorney Gerard M. Karam, Mayko agreed with others to defraud Medicare by submitting medically unnecessary urine drug tests for chronic opioid patients at medical clinics where she was the chief executive officer, including a group of clinics known as Pain Medicine of York or “PMY” (also known as All Better Wellness).
Mayko became the CEO of Pain Medicine of York around January 2018. Prior to that, Mayko served as Director of Operations of a group of medical practices known in the Information as “Practice Group 1.” Mayko was hired to work at Practice Group 1 by an individual known in the Information as Physician 1.
The owner of PMY, known as “PMY Owner” in the Information, was friends and business partners with Physician 1. “PMY Owner” refers to Rodney L. Yentzer, who has separately pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering for his participation in the same scheme to defraud Medicare. Yentzer is still awaiting sentencing.
Physician 1 was imprisoned for health care fraud and federal tax offenses in mid-2017, at which point the operation of Practice Group 1 was transitioned to PMY. When Mayko was promoted to the position of CEO of PMY, her responsibilities did not materially change. From the time of her promotion onward, Mayko was in charge of the day-to-day management of PMY’s operations, which included the practices previously associated with Practice Group 1.
PMY had a policy, established in 2016 by Physician 1 and Yentzer, of ordering multiple urine drug tests for each patient at every PMY office visit, despite a lack of medical necessity. From mid-2017 onward, Mayko and Yentzer were repeatedly confronted with information regarding the unlawful nature of the company’s UDT billing practices but continued to utilize the practice until search warrants were executed at PMY’s various locations in November 2019. PMY ceased operations soon thereafter because it could no longer retain medical providers.
PMY billed Medicare for more than $10 million in urine drug tests from mid-2017 through the end of 2019, and Medicare paid out over $5 million for these urine drug tests. The urine drug tests ordered by PMY were sent to an in-house laboratory at PMY whenever possible. As a result, when medically unnecessary tests were billed to Medicare, the proceeds from them went to PMY itself. A large portion of these proceeds went to Yentzer and Mayko. In 2018 and 2019, for instance, Mayko earned around half a million dollars per year. Mayko, in turn, purchased several investment properties using these funds.
Judge Kane also ordered Mayko to pay $1,408,976.48 in restitution and to forfeit to the United States several properties located in Ocean City, Maryland and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
The case was investigated by 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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