Home Health & Hospice Week
Strike Force Focuses On Patient Recruiter Kickbacks
More details are emerging about the charges against home care providers in Medicare’s latest nationwide takedown for fraud, and the charges mostly revolve around kickbacks to patient recruiters.
In Chicago, one such recruiter was nabbed by a sting operation. Joseph Dickson, owner of medical marketing company JD Medical Consult-ants Inc., was charged with receiving kickbacks in exchange for referring patients to a home health agency in October 2012.
An HHA informant told FBI agents that Dickson had received $15,000 for referring 30 patients from 2005 to 2008, the agency says in a release. The government then set up a sting where the informant allegedly paid Dickson $4,200 for seven patient referrals and later made an additional $1,800 payment to Dickson in exchange for Medicare patient referrals and recertifications.
In Miami, individuals associated with Car-ing Nurse Home Health Corp. and Good Quality Home Health Inc. paid kickbacks to recruiters for patients and billed Medicare $50 million for services that weren’t provided or medically necessary, the Department of Justice says in a release.
And nurse Karina U. Merino with Ideal Home Health Inc. allegedly falsified patient visit logs. Patient recruiters Delia Y. Chaveco and Arturo Y. Chaveco are up on kickback charges for referring patients to Ideal.
Dora Moreira, owner of Anna Nursing Services Corp., paid kickbacks and bribes to patient recruiters and beneficiaries to obtain Medicare beneficiaries, prosecutors say. Ivan Alejo negotiated kickback rates and distributed kickback payments to patient recruiters in the scheme, physical therapist Hugo Morales fabricated patient medical documentation and Moreira laundered money to conceal the proceeds of the fraud and the payment of kickbacks to recruiters, according to the DOJ.
Marina Sanchez Pajon and Miguel Jime-nez, owners of Flores Home Health Care Inc., allegedly paid kickbacks and bribes to patient recruiters and beneficiaries.
And Enrique Alberto Siret Rodriguez and Alberto Cosme Garcia are charged with fraud and paying kickbacks and bribes to a doctor for fraudulent home health care prescriptions.
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Strike Force Focuses On Patient Recruiter Kickbacks
More details are emerging about the charges against home care providers in Medicare’s latest nationwide [...]
