Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement
Kickbacks, Perjury, and Falsified Records Fetch 75 Years Jail Time in Landmark Sentence
A federal judge sentenced Marie Neba, co-owner of Fiango Home Healthcare Inc. in Houston, to the whopping 75-year term after her conviction last November in a $13 million home health fraud scheme, the Department of Justice says in a release. Neba and co-owner/husband Ebong Tilong paid kickbacks to physicians, patient recruiters, and patients themselves, prosecutors proved at trial. And they falsified medical records to make it appear patients qualified for and received home care services, when services weren’t provided. Key: “Neba also attempted to suborn perjury from a co-defendant in the federal courthouse, the evidence showed,” the DOJ says. In other words, she tried to get a witness to lie. Ebong pled guilty one week into Neba’s trial. Three others have pled guilty in the scheme — physician Nirmal Mazumdar, Fiango’s former medical director, and patient recruiters Daisy Carter and Connie Ray Island. Island has been sentenced to nearly three yearsin prison, while the others await sentencing, the DOJ says. “The 75-year sentence in the first case is extraordinary,” observes attorney Liz Pearson, Esq. with Pearson & Bernard in Edgewood, Kentucky. She says she’s “never seen such a long sentence.” The fact that “there were several things going on — kickbacks to recruiters and to beneficiaries” and “that they were paying the beneficiary to just bill on the HIC number” were likely contributing factors, she surmises. Under federal sentencing guidelines, judges don’t have as much discretion as in state court, notes attorney Robert Markette Jr., Esq. with Hall Render in Indianapolis. “It probably didn’t help [Neba’s] case that she tried to get at least one witness to lie during the trial,” he says. “She appears to have just kept piling on.” “Likely what put the nail in the coffin [is that] she attempted to suborn perjury — to get one of the co-conspirators to lie,” Pearson agrees. Read the DOJ release at: www.justice.gov/opa/pr/owner-home-health-agency-sentenced-75-years-prison-involvement-13-million-medicare-fraud.
Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement
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Kickbacks, Perjury, and Falsified Records Fetch 75 Years Jail Time in Landmark Sentence
A federal judge sentenced Marie Neba, co-owner of Fiango Home Healthcare Inc. in Houston, to [...]
