Home Health & Hospice Week
Doc Practice Owners Sentenced For Bogus CPO Claims
Two co-owners of a physician house call practice in Dallas will be doing serious time for Medicare fraud.
Lawrence Dale St. John and his son, Jeffrey Dale St. John, conspired together to bill Medicare for care plan oversight by medical director Nicolas Alfonso Padron through their practice A Medical House Calls, also known as A+ Medical House Calls and ANM Physician House Calls. A Medical’s “primary purpose was to certify and re-certify Medicare beneficiaries for home health services, regardless of the true condition of the patient,” according to the Department of Justice. Then the practice would bill for bogus CPO claims “for numerous beneficiaries when Dr. Padron was out of town, including dates when he was out of the country and on a cruise,” the DOJ says in a release.
The St. Johns were convicted at trial last September, and a federal judge gave them 21-year and 11-year prison sentences at sentencing March 31. The St. Johns were also ordered to pay restitution, the Justice Department says. Padron was recently sentenced to 4 years, nine months in prison and $9.5 million in restitution after pleading guilty in the scheme (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XXIII, No. 12).
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