Home Health & Hospice Week

A major newspaper has taken on the touchy issue of race and Medicare fraud. The Dallas Morning News published an article investigating the incidence of Medicare home health fraud in the local Nigerian-American population. One-third of all Texas home health fraud cases involve Nigerian-Americans, the newspaper reports.

Nigerian-American Dallas education consultant Remigus Ihekwaba said he and his wife looked at opening a home health agency but changed their minds after sensing there was too much corruption. "It is embarrassing to the Nigerian community that this type of thing is going on," said Ihekwaba, who is also president of the West Africa America Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Dallas. "It’s greed. Greed and trying to see the easy way out," he told the News. "People took advantage of lax enforcement by the federal government on this issue."

The feds indicted Nigerian-born Dr. Joseph Megwa and HHA owner Ferguson Ikhile in 2012 in one of the biggest fraud cases to date (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XXI, No. 36). Ikhile has pled guilty, the News says. In the infamous Dr. Jacques Roy case involving payment suspension for 78 HHAs, one of the largest agencies involved was owned by Nigerian-American Cyprian Akamnonu, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for fraud (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XXII, No. 32).

Last month, Megwa’s attorneys asked the judge in the case to prohibit prosecutors from mentioning Megwa’s nationality or immigration status because of "a backlash in this country against immigrants, particularly immigrants of color and immigrants from Africa, who are charged with criminal offenses," the News reports. Prosecutors countered that Megwa’s nationality is relevant to the case.

Community leaders insist a few bad apples in the Nigerian-American business community are making life hard for the large majority who are legitimate business owners and operators.

For a link to the in-depth article, "Dallas area home to huge health care frauds," e-mail editor Rebecca Johnson at rebeccaj@eliresearch.com with "Dallas Fraud Article" in the subject line.