Home Health & Hospice Week

A year after pleading guilty to Medicare fraud, a Detroit home health agency owner and operator has received a six-year prison sentence. Zahir Yousafzai owned or helped operate First Care Home Health Care, Moonlite Home Care Inc., Physicians Choice Home Health Care, and Quan-tum Home Care Inc., which billed Medicare for services never provided, according to prosecutors. 

Yousafzai paid and directed the payment of kickbacks to recruiters who obtained beneficiaries’ Medicare information that he used to submit claims for home care that was never provided, according to court documents. The beneficiaries sometimes pre-signed forms that were later falsified to indicate they received home health services, when they did not, the Department of Justice adds in a release. In other instances, the beneficiaries’ signatures were forged. Yousafzai also signed patient files falsely stating that physical therapy services were provided. Additionally, according to court records, Yousafzai incorporated a shell company known as A-1 Nurs-ing and Rehab Inc. to launder the proceeds of the fraud.