Two home care fraudsters have been handed stiff prison sentences following guilty pleas.
A Miami federal judge has sentenced Rogelio Rodriguez and Raymond Aday to nine years and more than four years in prison, respectively, the Department of Justice says in a release. In addition to the prison term, the judge sentenced Rodriguez to pay $33 million in restitution, and Aday to pay $2.1 million. Both defendants were also sentenced to serve three years of supervised release and pay a $100,000 fine.
In December 2012, each pleaded guilty to fraud in a $48 million scheme (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XXII, No. 1). The scheme involved paying kickbacks to patient recruiters so the agencies could submit false claims to Medicare. Rodriguez was the owner of Caring Nurse Home Health Corp. and Good Quality Home Health Inc., and Aday was the co-owner of Good Quality and manager of Caring Nurse. From January 2006 through June 2011, the two HHAs purportedly billed Medicare for services that were not provided or not medically necessary.