Home Health & Hospice Week

Physician receives 4 years for bogus hospice certs.

It’s not just home health agency and hospice owners and personnel on the receiving end of the feds’ scrutiny. A number of recent cases show that authorities are looking at all the actors in home care fraud cases — including physicians.

In California: Physician Boyao Huang, who was convicted of certifying as terminal patients served by Covina-based California Hospice Care in an $8.8 million Medicare scam, has been sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay $1.3 million in restitution, the DOJ says in a release. CHC owner Priscilla Villabroza and her daughter paid patient recruiters for patients, had CHC nurses perform bogus assessments for them, and had the docs falsely certify them in exchange for kickbacks. Then CHC personnel altered medical records when the hospice was audited by Medicare, prosecutors said in Huang’s two-week trial. Eight other defendants have pled guilty in the scheme, and Villabroza was sentenced to eight years in prison in June.

In Texas: A Rio Grand Valley-area physician, Pedro Garcia, has been charged with soliciting and obtaining cash in exchange for Medicare home health referrals, the DOJ says in a release. Prosecutors allege Garcia signed forms for patients he did not treat or provide services to — some of whom were dead on the dates of treatment. He’s also charged with identity theft.

In Chicago: A federal jury has convicted the head of a Homewood telemarketing company of pocketing illegal kickbacks in exchange for home care referrals, the DOJ says in a release. Serenity Living owner Sundae Williams used unsolicited phone calls to recruit patients, then referred patients to several Chicago-area HHAs in exchange for money. Other defendants convicted in the scheme include nurse and agency operator James Ademiju, Suburban Home Physicians dba Doctor at Home physician Alan Newman, and Suburban manager and nurse Diana Jocelyn Gumila.