Home Health & Hospice Week

Industry Note:

Feds Execute Search Warrants In Michigan Fraud Case

The owner of four Detroit-area HHAs is facing Medicare fraud charges to the tune of $30 million. Law enforcement agents executed search warrants at five locations and seizure warrants for 31 bank accounts related to the scheme allegedly perpetrated by Zafar Mehmood, owner of Access Care Home Care Inc. and Patient Care Home Care Inc. in Ypsilanti, Mich., and Hands On Healing Home Care Inc. and All State Home Care Inc. in Detroit, according to a release from the Department of Justice, HHS Office of Inspector General and FBI.

According to a criminal complaint unsealed in U.S. District Court in Detroit, Mehmood allegedly submitted fraudulent claims to Medicare throughthe four agencies for services that were medically unnecessary and/or never provided. Mehmood also paid kickbacks to patient recruiters and laundered the proceeds of the scheme through sham companies and intermediaries, prosecutors claim. The money went into his personal bank accounts and back to Pakistan, they said in court proceedings Nov. 3, reports the Detroit Free Press.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Mona Majzoub ordered Mehmood temporarily detained after a federalprosecutor argued he was a flight risk or might intimidate witnesses, the newspaper says. The investigation was conducted by Detroit's Medicare Fraud Strike Force.

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