A federal grand jury recently indicted a married couple that runs an in-home health care company. Prosecutors allege that the couple and their company defrauded Medicare.
The man and woman both insist that they are innocent of the 47 charges contained in the indictment recently filed in U.S. District Court. The charges include health care fraud and conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
In a court document, prosecutors claimed that the couple acted to “fraudulently and unlawfully enrich themselves with money” from Medicare obtained through a variety of false billing methods.
Prosecutors said the couple defrauded Medicare in three ways:
- Upcoding: they allegedly billed Medicare for treatments and care that were more expensive than the ones provided by their home health care agency to patients.
- Nonexistent care: the couple is accused of billing Medicare for doctor or nurse practitioner care that was actually provided by medical assistants, technicians and the like.
- Forgery: the couple is accused of forging signatures of medical providers on forms that indicated those doctors and nurses had cared for patients when they had not.
In some instances, prosecutors said, the couple used the provider’s signature stamp “to conceal and advance their Medicare (CMS) fraud scheme.”
Though these alleged activities took place in Arizona over a period of several years, home care services have faced similar accusations here in Texas.
Those who are under investigation for possible health care law violations should speak to attorneys experienced in home health care legal representation. Contact Rivas Goldstein, LLP for more information.