Home Health & Hospice Week
Home Health Marketer Charged $500 Per Cert Kickback
Hospice cases result in guilty verdict, plea. After a two-day trial, a federal jury has found a Houston-area home health marketer guilty of taking and paying kickbacks. Patrick Osemwengie charged Ebra Home Health $500 for an initial home health certification and $250 for a recertification, prosecutors proved. And Osemwengie paid beneficiaries to sign up for unnecessary home health services, according to a Department of Justice release. “Health care peddlers like Osemwengie prey on the elderly and are part of the larger health care fraud problem,” U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani says in the release. “Illegal kickbacks and related crimes damages Medicare’s ability to help those that truly need it. We will continue to prosecute these individuals and work to preserve the system designed to protect and insure our nations’ most vulnerable citizens.” Osemwengie is scheduled for sentencing in July. Other fraud cases include: In Louisiana: After a nearly four-week trial, a federal jury has returned a guilty verdict against Angel Care Hospice owner Kristal Glover-Wing, the DOJ says in a release. From 2009 through 2017, Angel Care received more than $1.5 million for over 24 patients who did not meet Medicare hospice criteria. While Glover-Wing was convicted, “the doctors in this case were ultimately acquitted,” acknowledges U.S. Attorney Brandon B. Brown in the release. In California: Karen Sarkisyan, aka Kevin Sarkisyan, has pleaded guilty to submitting false and fraudulent Medicare enrollment forms for San Gabriel Hospice and Palliative Care Inc. in Glendale, falsely identifying a straw owner as the sole owner and manager and concealing the actual beneficial owners and managers, the DOJ says in a release. Medicare paid San Gabriel nearly $3.2 million after Sarkisyan submitted the false enrollment applications. Sarkisyan is scheduled for sentencing in September. Co-conspirator Gayk Akhsharumov pleaded guilty earlier and faces sentencing in August, while a third co-conspirator was indicted for his role in the scheme but remains a fugitive, the DOJ notes.
Home Health & Hospice Week
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Home Health Marketer Charged $500 Per Cert Kickback
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