Home Health & Hospice Week

Kickbacks played key part in fraud schemes in Detroit, Miami.

The heat may be letting up as we say goodbye to summer, but the same doesn’t go for HEAT task forces.

The Health Care Fraud Prevention and En-forcement Action Teams in nine cities nationwide played a critical role in these recent fraud takedowns:

In Detroit: Zafar Mehmood is currently awaiting trial for his alleged role in a fraud scheme involving the submission of fraudulent home health claims to Medicare for services that were medically unnecessary or never provided. Mehmood also has been indicted on obstruction of justice charges for attempting to conceal evidence relevant to the trial, the Department of Justice says in a release. Meh-mood attempted to alter and conceal records including patient files, the DOJ charges.

Mehmood, owner of Access Care Home Care Inc. and Patient Care Home Care Inc. in Ypsilanti, Mich., and Hands On Healing Home Care Inc. and All State Home Care Inc. in Detroit, allegedly paid kickbacks to patient recruiters and laundered the proceeds of the scheme through sham companies and intermediaries, prosecutors claim (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XX, No. 40). The money went into his personal bank accounts and back to Pakistan, they said in court proceedings last Nov. 3, according to press reports.

Also in Detroit: Former home health agen-cy owner Muhammad Aamir has pled guilty to billing Medicare for home care services that were not actually rendered, not medically necessary, and procured through paying illegal kickbacks, the DOJ says in a release. Aamir admitted to fabricating and falsifying home health certifications and plans of care, therapy notes, evaluations, recertifications, discharges and other records to support medically unnecessary therapy and other services billed by Prestige Home Health Services Inc. and Platinum Home Health Services Inc. in Troy, Mich., and Empirical Home Health Care Inc. in Farmington Hills, Mich. Aamir awaits sentencing in January.

In Miami: A former HHA owner has re-ceived nearly six years in prison for Medicare fraud, the DOJ says in a release. Annarella Garcia, co-owner of now-defunct Professional Medical Home Health, billed Medicare for home health services that were medically necessary or not provided; paid kickbacks and bribes to patient recruiters; and falsified patient documentation. In addition to the 70 months in prison, Garcia was sentenced to pay $6.2 million in restitution, according to the DOJ.

Also in Miami: Another former HHA owner has received more than six years in prison for Medicare fraud. Cruz Sonia Collado, former owner and operator of Nestor Home Health, paid kickbacks and bribes to patient recruiters and billed Medicare for home health and therapy services that were medically unnecessary and, in many instances, not provided, the DOJ alleges in a release. Collado also was sentenced to serve three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $6.5 million in restitution.