COURT HOUSE – Superior Court Judge Raymond Batten dismissed a 124-count indictment for health care claims fraud and conspiracy pending against North Wildwood physician John Costino and his wife and office manager Barbara on Dec. 3.
Costino was indicted on 62 counts of health care claims fraud a crime of the second degree. The indictment also charged both John Costino and Barbara Haas, also known as Barbara Costino, with 62 counts of conspiracy to commit health care claims fraud also a crime of the second degree-crime.
Costino and Haas were alleged to have delegated patient care for physical therapy to unlicensed office staff to 62 different patients then illegally billed and were paid by various medical insurance companies in an amount totaling $142,867 over a three and a half year period for the illegally performed physical therapy.
However defense attorney John Tumelty, representing Barbara Costino, argued that the Prosecutor’s Office never actually looked at the individual patient records to determine what treatment the 62 patients received and whether or not it was provided by a licensed health-care provider.
Without those files, Tumelty said, it would impossible to prove which patients received which treatments and who provided those treatments.
John Costino still faces other charges involving insurance fraud and the illegal distribution of prescription drugs in a case that also involved two undercover officers who posed as strippers in the summer of 2007. Those charges stem from a multijurisdictional investigation into the illegal distribution of prescription narcotics.
Costino’s physician’s license has since been revoked by the state Board of Medical Examiners.
Click here to read the full story, courtesy of The Press of Atlantic City.
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