Home Health & Hospice Week

The longest sentence is more than 13 years, while the most recent is for the hospice’s marketing director.

Six years after federal raids and five years after being indicted in the salacious Novus Health Care Services fraud case, 13 of the individuals involved in the Dallas-area hospice scheme have been sentenced to a combined 84 years in prison, the Department of Justice says in a press release.

After the guilty pleas came the sentences, with the most recent levied against Novus marketing director Slade Brown on Aug. 25. A Dallas federal judge sentenced Brown to four years in prison, the DOJ notes in the release.

The longest sentences thus far in the case have been for Harris himself (13 years and 3 months); two physician medical directors who went to trial rather than plead guilty, Mark Gibbs (13 years) and Laila Hirjee (10 years); and nurse Jessica Love (8.5 years).

Sentences for the other coconspirators were 8 years for LVN Taryn Stuart, whom Harris texted “good job” after a patient died following medication administration; 7 years for triage nurse Patricia Armstrong, who helped sign up assisted living patients for hospice without any physician involvement; 5.5 years for director of operations Melanie Murphey; 4.75 years for medical director and physician Charles Leach; more than 3 years for VP of patient services and Harris’ wife Amy Harris; 2.75 years each for VP of marketing Sam Anderson and RN Tammie Little; and 1.5 years for Ali Rizvi, owner of Express Medical. Rizvi allowed Harris to access potential patients’ confidential medical information in return for using Express Medical for lab tests and home health visits, the DOJ says.