Home Health & Hospice Week

Check your clinicians’ licenses or pay for the mistake later.

That’s a lesson Agape Hospice Care of Northeast Georgia has learned the hard way. Agape has agreed to pay $250,993 for violating the Civil Monetary Penalties Law by submitting claims for services provided by two unlicensed nurses, the HHS Office of Inspector General says on its CMPs webpage. “Single damages were calculated as the full salary and benefits paid to the nurses during the period they worked without a valid license,” the watchdog agency explains.

Agape self-reported the conduct, the OIG notes.

And make sure your nurses are who they say they are.

In Laredo, Texas, Nora Nely Avila has been charged with impersonating a nurse from January 2017 through December 2019 and performing work she was not qualified to do at multiple home health companies in the area, the Department of Justice says in a release. Avila also allegedly obtained employment as nurse trainer in the federally funded Job Corps program and was assigned to train future nurses.

If convicted, Avila faces up to five years in federal prison as well as a possible $250,000 fine for each of the false statements charges, plus an additional two years in prison for aggravated identity theft, according to the Justice Department.