Home Health & Hospice Week

A former hospice owner convicted of Medicare fraud has drawn a whopping 14.5-year prison sentence. He also was ordered to repay $16.2 million in restitution to Medicare and $16.2 million in a forfeiture money judgment.

Philadelphia-based Home Care Hospice Inc. billed Medicare more than $14 million for services that were medically unnecessary or never provided, the Department of Justice says in a release. HCH owner Matthew Kolodesh, aka Matvei Kolo-dech, was convicted of diverting $9.6 million from HCH’s operating account for his own personal use. He used the money for extensive renovations to his house, travel expenses, college tuition for his son, and — a common purchase for Medicare fraudsters — a luxury automobile, prosecutors said.

Kolodesh and his co-conspirator exchanged sham medical director, advisor, or hospice physician payments for referrals, DOJ says. Kolodesh also ordered a mass discharge of patients when the hospice hit its cap, and swapped patients to avoid the cap, among other transgressions, prosecutors argued.

“Nurses and other staff participated in a massive fraud that involved altering patient records to make patients appear eligible for hospice services, when in reality they were not,” the DOJ notes. “HCH even tricked Medicare auditors.”

Plus: The DOJ has filed a related False Claims Act suit against Kolodesh, his wife and sham HCH CEO Malvina Yakobashvili, Executive Di-rector and owner Alex Pugman, and Pugman’s wife and HCH Development Executive Svetlana Ganet-sky, the agency says in a release. The whistleblower lawsuit focuses on General Inpatient care.