Home Health & Hospice Week

Another stiff prison sentence has been handed down in the case against Houston-based Family Healthcare Group. Former co-owner Cliff-ord Ubani has received a nine-year jail term and must repay $4.2 million, the DOJ says in a release.

In the $5.2 million scheme, prosecutors said Ubani paid co-conspirators to recruit Medicare beneficiaries so Family Healthcare Group could file claims for skilled nursing that was medically unnecessary or not provided. Ubani's co-conspirators would then falsify documents to support the bogus claims. Ubani also paid co-conspirators to sign fraudulent plans of care stating that the beneficiaries needed home health care when in fact they knew the beneficiaries were not homebound and not in need of skilled nursing, the DOJ says.

Ubani is the eighth defendant sentenced in the case. His wife Ezinne Ubani, the agency's Director of Nursing, recently received an eight-year prison sentence.