Home Health & Hospice Week

Industry Note:

Physician Convicted Of Falsifying Plans Of Care For HHAs

Falsified plans of care got a Houston-area physician in trouble with the Department of Justice. A federal court convicted Ben Harris Echols of conspiring to commit health care fraud for submitting false claims to Medicare for home health services. Some of the claims were for Medicare beneficiaries Echols allegedly did not even treat, the DOJ states.

Echols purportedly signed plans of care for patients so that HHAs Family Healthcare Group Inc. and Houston Compassionate Care could bill fraudulent claims to Medicare. The DOJ reports that Medicare paid out approximately $17.3 million worth of false claims for home health services.

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