A Miami-Dade doctor convicted of pocketing more than $1 million for writing phony prescriptions for unnecessary HIV treatments was sentenced Monday to almost 20 years in prison, for his key role in a massive Medicare fraud conspiracy. The scam bilked millions of dollars from the federal healthcare program.
Dr. Rene de los Rios, a 72-year-old Cuban-born physician trained in Spain, said virtually nothing at his sentencing as U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard hammered him for violating his medical oath, stealing from the vulnerable government program and disgracing himself, his family and his community. She also accused him of “blatantly lying” as a witness during his trial that ended with a jury’s guilty verdict in April.
“Dr. de los Rios does not deserve the title of doctor anymore,” the judge declared, rejecting his bid for about seven years in prison.
The doctor’s sentence was the second stiffest of any meted out against a physician convicted of Medicare fraud in South Florida, which is widely regarded as the capital of crime against the federal program for the elderly and disabled. It rivaled that of Dr. Ana Alvarez-Jacinto, a Miami-Dade physician convicted of a crime similar to Rios’ HIV scam; she was sentenced to 30 years by Chief U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno in 2008.
Alvarez-Jacinto’s punishment was upheld last year in an Atlanta-based federal appellate court ruling written by retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Sitting as a guest panelist, she declared that “a doctor should be punished more severely than other participants because the doctor is breaching a position of trust and an ethical obligation to put the patient’s interest first.”
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