Doctor lied to patients about them having diseases to make $28M in Texas, feds say
.jpg "A Texas doctor is accused of falsely diagnosing patients to gain millions of dollars from insurance companies.")
A Texas doctor was sentenced to prison after federal officials said he told his patients they had diseases they didn’t have in order to make millions.
Dr. Jorge Zamora-Quezada, 68, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to repay over $28 million, including 13 real estate properties, a jet and a Maserati, according to a May 21 news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
McClatchy News reached out to Zamora-Quezada’s attorney for comment May 22 but did not immediately hear back.
The Justice Department said Zamora-Quezada lived a luxurious life and lied to patients so he could receive payments from insurance companies.
Zamora-Quezada defrauded Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE and Blue Cross Blue Shield by falsely diagnosing his patients with rheumatoid arthritis, the Justice Department said.
He then gave the patients “toxic medications,” according to federal officials.
Zamora-Quezada made patients believe they had “a life-long, incurable condition that required regular treatment at his offices,” the Justice Department said.
He would administer “unnecessary treatments” and order “unnecessary testing” on the patients, according to the Justice Department. This included different “injections, infusions, x-rays, MRIs, and other procedures—all with potentially harmful and even deadly side effects,” the agency said.
Zamora-Quezada also fabricated medical records and lied to insurers about the patients’ conditions, the Justice Department said.
“Dr. Zamora-Quezada funded his luxurious lifestyle for two decades by traumatizing his patients, abusing his employees, lying to insurers, and stealing taxpayer money,” Matthew R. Galeotti, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said in the news release.
Other rheumatologists testified that hundreds of their patients diagnosed by Zamora-Quezada in fact did not have rheumatoid arthritis, according to federal officials.
Some patients suffered from “debilitating” side effects from the “powerful” medications they were given, including strokes, hair loss, liver damage, pain and necrosis of the jawbone, the Justice Department said.
One patient said in court that they were “constantly being in bed and being unable to get up from bed alone, and being pumped with medication, I didn’t feel like my life had any meaning.”
“Testimony also revealed Zamora-Quezada’s obstruction of insurer audits by fabricating missing patient files, including by taking ultrasounds of employees and using those images as documentation in the patient records,” federal officials said.
The Justice Department said the scheme involved over $118 million in false claims and over $28 million paid out by insurers.
This story was originally published May 22, 2025 at 3:18 PM with the headline "Doctor lied to patients about them having diseases to make $28M in Texas, feds say."
