Home Health & Hospice Week

The long arm of the law tapped a few more shoulders last month.

More charges were announced relating to a Los Angeles Medicare fraud scheme that allegedly involved about $2.6 million in fraudulent durable medical equipment claims.

The latest indictment alleges that Sumner Bohee, physician and owner of the Los Angeles-based Phoenix Multi-Specialty Clinic received patients referred by the three defendants - Steve Jari, Keith Allison and Bernard Townsend - who worked as "cappers" for Vasu Deo, a man previously charged with defrauding Medicare for unnecessary or non-delivered medical equipment.

Bohee allegedly received illegal kickbacks from Deo and the cappers for signing certificates of medical necessity recommending motorized wheelchairs or hospital beds for beneficiaries. The CMNs were then given to Deo to bill Medicare for the equipment.

In many cases, the Medicare beneficiaries had no medical need for the equipment and never received it. Deo submitted about $2.6 million in fraudulent claims, and Medicare paid him about $1.15 million.

"These arrests should send the message loud and clear that law enforcement is actively investigating not only the crooked durable medical equipment suppliers, but also the marketers, patient recruiters, doctors and others needed to pull off these sorts of schemes," said Acting Principal Deputy Inspector General Dara Corrigan of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Bohee could face up to 110 years in jail on a variety of fraud and money laundering charges in the case.