Home Health & Hospice Week

A former Miami home health agency owner has pled guilty to a $42 million Medicare fraud scheme.Willsand Home Health Inc. owner Eulises Escalona paid kickbacks to Medicare beneficiaries to become patients and receive medically unnecessary services, according to a release from the De-partment of Justice. Escalona also paid kickbacks to patient recruiters and to doctors who signed fraudulent prescriptions and plans of care (POCs), and falsified documentation. Escalona submitted $42 million in false claims and received about $27 million in Medicare reimbursement.As part of the plea agreement, Escalona agreed to forfeit to the government two residential properties and cash proceeds of the fraud contained in several bank accounts, the DOJ says.