Home Health & Hospice Week

Father-and-son owners of a physician housecall company have been convicted of Medi-care fraud related to home care patients. Lawrence Dale St. John and his son, Jeffrey Dale St. John, owned A Medical House Calls with locations in Dallas, Mesquite, and Carrollton, Texas.

"Its primary purpose was to certify and re-certify Medicare beneficiaries for home health services, regardless of the true condition of the patient," the Department of Justice says in a release. "Once A Medical established a Medicare beneficiary for phy-sician home visit services, A Medical would submit billing for fraudulent care plan oversight claims."

The defendants conspired to bill Medicare for care plan oversight by medical director Nicolas Alfonso Padron for numerous beneficiaries when Dr. Padron was out of town, including dates when he was out of the country and on a cruise, the Justice Department says. The St. Johns billed Medicare for $1.4 million of services that were either not medically necessary or not rendered at all. "Through the fraudulent certifications, Medicare was billed an additional $9.7 million by home health agencies," DOJ adds in the release.

Padron pled guilty to the fraud last fall, DOJ says. Sentencing for the St. Johns is scheduled for Jan. 27.