Home Health & Hospice Week

A Miami-area home health agency owner and employee have received stiff prison sentences after pleading guilty to Medicare fraud last year. Prime Home Health Services Inc. owner Marietha Morales paid kickbacks and bribes to patient recruiters and for certifications and plans of care, Department of Justice prosecutors say in a release. Employee Eduardo Saborit-Dominguez distributed the kickbacks and bribes, court documents say.

From February 2005 through April 2011, Morales and her co-conspirators submitted about $22 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medicare paid about $14 million, the DOJ says.

Morales received a nine-year prison term plus three years' supervised release, and must repay $14 million, the DOJ says. Saborit-Dominguez received a nearly four-year jail term, three years' supervised release, and must repay $2 million.