Dowd Bennett Obtains Defense Verdict for Fresenius Medical Care

Adriana M. Chavez, El Paso Times

Suit against medical center is dismissed

March 5, 2010 EL PASO — A federal lawsuit against a medical center with two clinics in El Paso has been dismissed, attorneys for the center said this week.

The suit alleging Medicare fraud by Fresenius Medical Care of North America and a clinic manager, Larry Ramirez, was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Phillip Martinez, attorneys said. Martinez dismissed the case after a jury found that a doctor named in the lawsuit, Dr. Alfonso Chavez, wasn’t liable.

Rebecca Gonzalez, a former clinic employee, filed the suit and claimed that the company had for years allowed two unlicensed employees to pose as doctors and administer kidney dialysis treatment without the presence of a licensed physician. She claimed Chavez and Ramirez devised a fraudulent scheme to bill Medicare for those dialysis treatments.

Copyright 2010 El Paso Times, Texas