Home Health & Hospice Week

HHA owner draws 40 years.

Potential fraudsters may now think twice about choosing the home care industry for their scams, thanks to a seeming trend of hefty prison sentences for the crime.

First, a Texas federal judge sentenced Fiango Home Healthcare Inc. owner Marie Neba in Houston to an unprecedented 75 years in prison after her conviction last November for a $13 million home health fraud scam. Then a Texas federal judge sentenced the infamous Dr. Jacques Roy to 35 years in prison for his role in a brazen $375 million fraud scheme involving his physician practice falsifying documentation for patients of multiple Dallas-area home health agencies (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XXVI, No. 30).

Now, another federal Texas judge has slapped Houston HHA owner Godwin Oriakhi with a 40-year sentence after he pled guilty to home health fraud charges in March. In the $18 million scheme, Godwin paid patients to let him bill Medicare and Medicaid for unnecessary and unprovided services from his agencies, Aabraham Blessings, Baptist Home Care Providers Inc., Community Wide Home Health Inc., Four Seasons Home Healthcare Inc., and Kis Med Concepts Inc., the Department of Justice says in a release. Godwin also paid patient recruiters, agency employees, physicians, and the patients themselves for referrals.

This is the largest “provider attendant services” (PAS) case in Texas history, the DOJ notes in the release.

Another sentence: Godwin’s daughter, agency administrator Idia Oriakhi, RN employee Charles Esechie, and patient recruiter Jermaine Doleman have also pled guilty in the case. Doleman was also charged in two other fraud cases. Esechie received five years in prison, while Idia Oriakhi and Doleman await sentencing, the DOJ notes.

These lengthy sentences send the message that home health fraud is not acceptable, praises finance expert Tom Boyd with Simione Healthcare Consultants in Rohnert Park, Calif. “Good for Texas judges,” Boyd cheers. Fraud convictions are “getting longer terms than some murders,” he notes.

Texas Case #2

Myrna Parcon, owner of US Physician Home Visits and related Dallas home health agencies A Good Homehealth, a/k/a “Be Good Healthcare Inc.,” and Essence Home Health, a/k/a “Primary Angel Inc.,” has drawn a 10-year prison sentence for her guilty plea in a nearly $60 million physician practice and home care fraud scheme, the DOJ says in a release. A federal judge also ordered her to pay $51.5 million in restitution.

Parcon concealed her ownership of the HHAs. And “more than 97 percent of USPHV Medicare patients received home health care, whether they needed it or not,” the DOJ says. “The false certifications caused Medicare to pay more than $40 million for fraudulent home health services.” USPHV also upcoded its doc visits, billing “at an alarming rate, generally billing for only the most comprehensive physician exam, and always adding a prolonged service code,” the DOJ says.

Co-defendant physician Noble U. Ezukanma, who was part owner of USPHV, was convicted following a five-day trial in March 2017 and awaits sentencing, the DOJ notes. Co-defendants Oliva Padilla, with whom Parcon formed Essence, and Ben Gaines, from whom Parcon bought A Good through a “straw” buyer, have pleaded guilty to their role in the scheme and are awaiting sentencing, Justice adds. USPHV co-owner and billing supervisor Lita Dejesus pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $4.2 million in restitution.

Texas Case #3

A federal jury has convicted Houston HHA owner Evelyn Mokwuah of home health fraud in a $20 million scheme, the DOJ says in a release. From 2008 to 2016, Mokwuah: billed for Beechwood Home Health and Criseven Health Management Corp. patients who were not homebound or did not qualify for home health services; falsified patient records to show patients were homebound when they were not; paid patient recruiters to recruit Medicare beneficiaries to Beechwood and Criseven; and paid doctors to sign off on falsified plans of care for the recruited beneficiaries so that Beechwood and Criseven could bill Medicare for those services, prosecutors said at trial.

Co-defendant Amara Oparanozie pleaded guilty May 24 and is awaiting sentencing, the DOJ says.