Home Health & Hospice Week

Fraud 'hot spots' move to other states. The feds' crackdown on power wheelchair fraud is bearing fruit.
 
A psychiatrist from The Woodlands, TX, Dr. Lewis Gottleib, pled guilty April 1 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud, executing a health care fraud scheme and receiving kickback payments between October 2001 and May 2003.
 
Gottleib could face 20 years in prison and was ordered to forfeit $1.6 million to the government, reports Texas U.S. Attorney Michael Shelby. Gottleib faces sentencing June 24.
 
Gottleib and six other suspects were indicted in September on two different wheelchair scams (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XII, No. 34, p. 267). Gottleib pled guilty to accepting $200 a pop to falsely certify hundreds of patients for wheelchairs. In addition to the kickbacks, he fraudulently billed Medicare for unnecessary psychiatric services for the beneficiaries.
 
The durable medical equipment suppliers paying Gottleib included 1st Choice Medical Equipment and Supply, Thurman Family Medical Supply, Senior's Comfort Care Medical Supply, all located in Houston, and Access Medical Supply located in Stafford, TX, prosecutors said.  All four suppliers began operating during 2001 and 2002 and ceased to conduct business during April and June 2003, after Medicare either revoked their supplier numbers or suspended payments, Shelby said last September.
 
The indicted physician in the other alleged scam, 71-year-old Dr. Anant Mauskar of Houston, has said wheelchair dealers forged his name on the certificates of medical necessity, reports The Houston Chronicle. Mauskar fired his attorney and is representing himself in court.
 
The other defendants are likely to face justice soon. "You're going to see a number of prosecutions come to fruition very quickly," Shelby said, "because we've been working on them a number of months now," according to the Chronicle.
 
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services touted the crackdown's success in its March 31 Open Door Forum on wheelchair issues (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XIII, No. 13, p. 102). And it appears to be fueling continued vigilance.
 
CMS says Harris County, TX fraud seems to have subsided, but wheelchair sales have surged in other areas including Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and a few smaller "hot spots," reports the paper.