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Home Health & Hospice Week

Industry Note:

Miami Nurses Handed Guilty Verdicts For Diabetes Scam

Published on Thu Aug 30, 2012

Two more RNs have been convicted in the Ideal Home Health fraud case in Miami.RNs Odalys Fernandez and Kelvin Soto claimed to have furnished twice daily skilled nursing visits to insulin-dependent diabetic patients who couldn't self-inject, the DOJ says in a release. But according to prosecutors in the nurses' trial, some of the patients weren't even diabetic, some were paid $1,000 in kickbacks for pretending to be diabetic, and Soto claimed to be making two to three visits at the same time. The nurses can face up to 10 years in prison at their sentencing in November. Another nurse found guilty in Ideal's $40 million Medicare fraud scheme was sentenced to the 10-year maximum sentence. The agency's husband-and-wife co-owners are in prison awaiting trial in the scam. The husband served a five-year prison term in the 1990s for cocaine smuggling.
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