Fraud & Abuse:
Chicago-Area HHA Owner Indicted On Fraud
Published on Wed Jun 08, 2011
'Lavish lifestyle' bought with Medicare fraud money, prosecutors allege. The feds' crackdown on health care fraud continues, with a home health agency owner now under indictment for a whopping $20 million in alleged false claims to Medicare. The indictment charges Jacinto "John" Gabriel Jr., owner of Perpetual Home Health Inc. in Oak Forest, Ill., and Legacy Home Healthcare Services in Chicago's north side, with submitting false claims to Medicare. Perpetual alone received $38 million in Medicare payments from 2006 to 2011, making it one of the biggest Medicare HHAs in the state, says a release from the U.S. Attorney's office for the Northern District of Illinois. The agencies are no longer operating. "Gabriel and his co-schemers allegedly obtained personal information of Medicare beneficiaries to bill Medicare without the beneficiaries' knowledge or consent; created false patient files to support fraudulent Medicare claims and submitted false claims based on those records; used [...]