Home Health & Hospice Week

A federal jury in Detroit has convicted the office manager of a home health agency for her participation in a $5.8 million Medicare fraud scheme, the Department of Justice says.

In the scheme, All American Home Care Inc. manager Nabila Mahbub and her co-conspirators used patient recruiters, who paid Medicare beneficiaries to sign blank documents for physical therapy services that were never provided and/or medically unnecessary, the DOJ says in a release. The owners of Oak Park, Mich.-based All American paid physicians to sign referrals and other therapy documents. PTs and PT assistants then created fake medical records using blank, pre-signed forms obtained by the patient recruiters to make it appear as if therapy services were rendered, when they were not.

According to evidence presented at trial, Mahbub doctored and directed the doctoring of fake patient files and directed the PTs and PTAs who created fake therapy visit notes using blank, pre-signed forms, to make it appear that therapy services billed to Medicare were actually provided.

Nineteen other individuals have been convicted in the scheme, the DOJ notes.

Mahbub faces up to 10 years in prison at her sentencing, scheduled for July.