Home Health & Hospice Week

A Detroit-area HHA owner and physical therapist have been found guilty in a $2.3 million Medicare fraud scheme.

As owner of Acure Home Care Inc. in Oak Park and Troy, Mich., Mehran Javidan paid doctors to refer non-homebound patients for physical therapy that was medically unnecessary, prosecutors said at trial. "The evidence showed that she also paid patient recruiters to obtain Medicare information and pre-signed physical therapy documents from Medicare beneficiaries," according to a Department of Justice release. "The recruiters for Acure obtained the Medicare information and pre-signed forms by paying patients in cash and by promising that the referring doctors would prescribe them narcotic prescriptions."

Therapist Vishnu Meda and other PTs and PT Assistants employed by Acure created "false and fraudulent physical therapy files using the blank, pre-signed forms" to make it appear as if PT services were actually rendered when they weren’t, the Justice Department adds.

The defendants could face more than 10 years in prison when sentenced in July.