Kriti Mehrotra
With HBO Max’s ‘Country Doctor’ underscoring the shifting landscape of the healthcare system across rural America, we get a documentary that can only be described as intriguing. That’s because it follows one particular physician as he navigates the local hospital’s administrative issues and bankruptcy in the hopes of saving it for the already struggling community. The owner of said hospital, Fairfax Community Hospital in Fairfax, Oklahoma, was actually Jorge Perez of Miami, Florida, who soon came under federal investigation for fraud in 2019.
Jorge Perez Was Once a Renowned Businessman
Although not much regarding Jorge Perez’s background or early years is publicly available as of writing, we know he was an entrepreneur who had the unwavering support of his family. After all, it was in the 1980s when he established EmpowerHMS, a management company whose sole mission was reportedly to help rural communities, hospitals, and systems. According to records, he proudly held the position of Founder-CEO, but his father as well as two brothers also helped him every step of the way, making it a family business in every sense.
EmpowerHMS was allegedly operating out of Miami, Florida, by the time the late 2010s rolled around, so most of the Perez family members were also based out of the sunny Magic City. As per reports, at its peak, the company was essentially a rural healthcare empire since it was helping oversee at least 18 hospitals across 8 states, with Jorge owning/co-owning at least 11. Moreover, it turns out that either he, his brothers, or someone close to him was even the CEO of the different firms that provided the hospitals’ billing services, administrative needs, and more.
According to KFF Health News, Jorge thus styled himself as a savior – he once even went as far as to assert, “I wanted to see if I could save these rural hospitals… I’m that kind of person.” He indicated that he was always very conscious about his promises regarding the plans for struggling facilities in small towns because he understood how his failure would impact them. However, by the late 2010s, several hospitals under his ownership and management had come forward to claim they were still in perpetual financial distress, resulting in the FBI getting involved.
Jorge Perez is Currently Serving a Federal Sentence For Fraud
While Jorge touted his ability to “save” rural healthcare, things changed in 2019 as it came to light that 12 out of the 18 hospitals he once owned and managed had filed for bankruptcy. As if that’s not enough, owing to mounting legal challenges and suspicions of fraud driving insurers to cut off funding to EmpowerHMS, 8 of them were even forced to close their doors. Then, finally, the entire truth started coming to light in 2020 when the Department of Justice filed charges against 10 individuals for allegedly being involved in a $1.4 billion billing fraud scheme.
Amongst those indicted was EmpowerHMS Founder-CEO Jorge, who stood trial in the summer of 2022 alongside one of his accomplices and younger brothers, Ricardo Perez. According to court records, the defendants purposefully sought to gain control of distressed rural hospitals for years because they could use them to create fake bills for laboratory tests. They later submitted these bills to private insurance companies for coverage, claiming the hospital itself did the tests, when in reality, they were often performed by outsiders/fellow co-conspirators. As per documents, there was even a pattern in these fraudulent bills as they often highlighted vulnerable individuals like those seeking addiction treatment or dealing with a chronic illness.
That’s because the conspirators were somehow able to find a loophole and get away with showing a testing frequency that far exceeded what would actually be required for real patient care. In the end, on June 27, 2022, Jorge and Ricardo were convicted of five counts of health care fraud, conspiracy to commit health care fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering of an amount greater than $10,000. Later on, on December 15, 2023, while the former was sentenced to 8⅓ years in federal prison, the latter was handed down a total of 4¼ years. Therefore, today, it appears as if both 64-year-old Jorge and 61-year-old Ricardo remain in federal custody.
Read More: Dr. James Graham: Where is the Country Doctor Now?
