Category Archives: Prison Sentence

Threats of prison time put gynecologists in impossible circumstances

Posted on by • Posted in Abortion, Dilemma, Ethics, Health Policy, Legal Challenges, Legal Jeopardy, Legal Liability, Physician, Pregnancy Care, Prison Sentence, Uncertainty, Unclear Laws, Womens Health • Leave a comment

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In states with laws that criminalize performing abortions, physicians are facing the dilemma of having to wait until a pregnant patient’s death is imminent to perform a potentially lifesaving procedure. Reporting from STAT News reveals how these laws are disrupting care. A physician in Missouri, which outlaws all abortions unless the life of the mother is in danger, described having to spend hours getting clearance from a hospital ethics team to perform the procedure on a patient with an ectopic pregnancy.

Even non-pregnancy care is being impacted. An arthritis patient taking methotrexate, which can also be used for abortion, was told by her doctor that all prescriptions for the drug are on pause due to legal uncertainty.

The Gist: Doctors and hospital legal counsel are dealing with a new legal landscape, marked by restrictive, ill-defined anti-abortion laws that fail to clarify what constitutes a medical emergency.

Physicians are forced to interpret unclear laws, often written without help from medical professionals, and many feel compelled to wait until patients are in dangerous, life-threatening situations to provide care—the opposite of what was instilled in them during years of training.   

Ex-healthcare CFO sentenced for role in fraud scheme

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The former CFO of Pacific Hospital’s physician management arm was sentenced to 15 months in prison June 24 for a tax offense related to a kickback scheme, according to the Justice Department. 

The sentencing came about four years after George Hammer was charged. In 2018, he pleaded guilty to one count of filing a false tax return. 

Mr. Hammer allegedly supported a kickback scheme that resulted in the submission of more than $500 million in bills for kickbacks for surgeries. He allegedly supported the kickback scheme by facilitating payments to people receiving kickbacks and bribes pursuant to sham contracts that were used to conceal illicit payments, according to the Justice Department. 

The Department of Justice notes that Mr. Hammer was a salaried employee and did not profit directly from the kickbacks and bribes. 

Twenty-two defendants, including the owner of Pacific Hospital in Long Beach, Calif., have been convicted for participating in the scheme.

Fired Mercyhealth exec sentenced for wire fraud, tax evasion

Posted on by • Posted in Dept of Justice (DOJ), Fraud, Fraud and Abuse, Health System, Hospital, Hospital Industry, Internal Audit, Internal Control, Kickbacks, Prison, Prison Sentence, Supply Chain • Leave a comment
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A former vice president of Janesville, Wis.-based Mercyhealth was sentenced to 3 ½ years in prison May 4 for wire fraud and tax evasion in relation to a $3.1 million kickback scheme, according to the U.S Justice Department.

Barbara Bortner, 57, Mercyhealth’s former vice president of marketing and public relations, pleaded guilty to the scheme in October 2021. 

Ms. Bortner was charged in September 2021. She admitted getting kickbacks from Ryan Weckerly, owner of a marketing agency hired by the health system, from 2015 to 2020.

Prosecutors said Ms. Bortner and Mr. Weckerly created a scheme in which Mr. Weckerly’s marketing agency, Morningstar Media Group, inflated invoices sent to Ms. Bortner for marketing work he did for Mercyhealth. In exchange, Ms. Bortner receive kickbacks from the funds received.

Prosecutors also said Ms. Bortner agreed to maintain Morningstar Media as its primary marketing group in exchange for the kickbacks.

Mr. Weckerly pleaded guilty in November 2021 and will be sentenced May 17.

Mercyhealth fired Ms. Bortner in August 2021, weeks before the charges were filed against her. Mercyhealth said the fraud didn’t affect patient care.

Justice Department adds CEO to $120M Medicare fraud case

Posted on by • Posted in Dept of Justice (DOJ), False Claims Act, Fraud, Fraud and Abuse, Home Health, Hospice, Medicare Fraud, Money Laundering, Prison, Prison Sentence, Rev Cycle Management, Revenue Cycle, Unnecessary Care • Leave a comment
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The Justice Department has intervened in a whistleblower lawsuit accusing former executives of San Antonio-based Merida Health Care Group of violating the False Claims Act, according to Law360. 

The Justice Department is intervening in the action, which dates back to 2015, alleging the former executives submitted more than $120 million in false claims to Medicare for medically unnecessary home health services and hospice care. The Justice Department is also adding Merida Health Group’s former CEO Henry McInnis to the complaint, according to the report. 

The Justice Department alleges Mr. McInnis and Rodney Mesquias, the former owner of Merida Health Care Group, violated the False Claims Act, and the government is also seeking damages under the common law and equitable theories of fraud and payment by mistake, according to court documents filed April 7 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. 

Mr. McInnis was sentenced to 15 years in prison in February 2021 for his role in a healthcare fraud and money laundering scheme. Mr. Mesquias was sentenced to 20 years in prison in late 2020. 

Wisconsin pharmacist who intentionally damaged 570 vaccine doses sentenced to 3 years in prison

Posted on by • Posted in Do No Harm, Health System, Hospital, Patient Safety, Pharmacist, Prison Sentence, Vaccine, Vaccine Tampering • Leave a comment
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Wisconsin pharmacist arrested after allegedly deliberately ruining hundreds of COVID-19 vaccine doses | KTLA

An Advocate Aurora Health pharmacist who intentionally damaged 570 doses of COVID-19 vaccine was sentenced to three years in prison, according to NBC affiliate WTMJ of Milwaukee.

Steven Brandenburg worked at Aurora Medical Center in Grafton, Wis., when he removed Moderna COVID-19 vaccine vials from refrigeration twice in December. He told investigators he believed the vaccine could harm patients or change their DNA. 

He was arrested Dec. 31 on charges of first-degree recklessly endangering society, adulterating a prescription drug and criminal damage to property. 

Fifty-seven people received the vaccines after they were left out, but they will likely experience no harm, according to officials with Aurora Health Care, based in both Milwaukee and Downers Grove, Ill.

After Aurora Health Care investigated the incident, Mr. Brandenburg was fired. He and the Wisconsin Pharmacy Examining Board agreed on his license suspension during a Jan. 13 meeting. 

Mr. Brandenburg on Jan. 26 agreed to plead guilty to two counts of attempting to tamper with consumer products with reckless disregard.

On June 8, Mr. Brandenburg was sentenced to three years in prison. After serving his sentence, he will face another three years of supervised release.

Mr. Brandenburg told the court he was “desperately sorry and ashamed” about tampering with the vaccines. He also said Aurora Health Care is a “pillar of the community” and “did not deserve” the incident, according to WTMJ.

Virginia physician gets 59-year sentence for unneeded patient surgeries, $20M fraud

Posted on by • Posted in Dept of Justice (DOJ), Fraud and Abuse, Medicaid, OB-GYN, Obstetrics, Physician, Prison Sentence, Sterilization, Surgery, Unnecessary Care • Leave a comment
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A Virginia OB-GYN was sentenced May 18 to 59 years in prison for a fraud scheme that caused insurance programs to lose more than $20 million, according to the U.S. Justice Department. 

Javaid Perwaiz, MD, was sentenced after being convicted last November of 52 counts of healthcare fraud and false statements related to a scheme in which he performed medically unnecessary surgeries, including hysterectomies and improper sterilizations, on his patients. 

From about 2010 to 2019, Dr. Perwaiz often falsely told his patients that they needed the surgeries because they had cancer or could avoid cancer, prosecutors said. Additionally, evidence showed Dr. Perwaiz falsified records for his obstetric patients to induce labor early to ensure he was reimbursed for the deliveries and violated Medicaid’s required 30-day waiting period for elective sterilization procedures by backdating records to make it appear that he had complied with the waiting period. Dr. Perwaiz also billed insurance companies for diagnostic procedures that he only pretended to perform at his office, prosecutors said. 

“Motivated by his insatiable and reprehensible greed, Perwaiz used an arsenal of horrifying tactics to manipulate and deceive patients into undergoing invasive, unnecessary and devastating medical procedures,” Raj Parekh, acting U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, stated. “In many instances, the defendant shattered their ability to have children by using fear to remove organs from their bodies that he had no right to take.”

A lawyer representing Dr. Perwaiz told The New York Times that Dr. Perwaiz is appealing the conviction. 

Michigan healthcare CEO gets 15 years in prison for $150M fraud

Posted on by • Posted in Conspiracy, Dept of Justice (DOJ), False Claims Act, Fraud, Fraud and Abuse, Kickbacks, Medicare Fraud, Money Laundering, Prison, Prison Sentence, Restitution, Rev Cycle Management, Revenue Cycle, Unnecessary Care, Wire Fraud • Leave a comment
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IIG trade finance fund caught in alleged Ponzi scheme | Global Trade Review (GTR)

The CEO of a chain of medical clinics in Michigan and Ohio was sentenced March 3 to 15 years in prison and ordered to pay $51 million in restitution for his role in a $150 million healthcare fraud scheme, according to the U.S. Justice Department. 

Mashiyat Rashid was sentenced after pleading guilty in 2018 to money laundering and conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and wire fraud. Twenty other defendants, including 12 physicians, have been convicted for their involvement in the scheme. 

Mr. Rashid, who served as CEO of Tri-County Wellness Group from 2008 to 2016, developed and approved a corporate policy to administer unnecessary back injections to patients in exchange for prescriptions of over 6.6 million doses of medically unnecessary opioids, according to the Justice Department. 

Many patients experienced pain from the unnecessary injections, and some developed adverse conditions, including open holes in their backs, according to testimony at Mr. Rashid’s trial. Physicians at the clinics denied patients, including those addicted to opioids, medication until they agreed to get the injections, according to court documents. 

According to evidence presented at trial, Mr. Rashid only hired physicians who were willing to administer the unnecessary injections in exchange for a split of the Medicare reimbursements for the procedures. Tri-County Wellness Group was paid more for facet joint injections than any other medical clinic in the U.S., according to the Justice Department. 

Proceeds of the fraud were used to fund private jets and to buy luxury cars, real estate and tickets to NBA games, prosecutors said. Mr. Rashid was ordered to forfeit to the U.S. government $11.5 million in proceeds traceable to the healthcare fraud scheme, including commercial and residential real estate and Detroit Pistons season tickets. 

CEO gets 15 years in prison for $150M healthcare fraud

Posted on by • Posted in Bribes, CEO, Dept of Justice (DOJ), False Claims Act, Falsifying Medical Records, Fraud, Fraud and Abuse, Money Laundering, Obstruction of Justice, Physician, Prison Sentence, Restitution, Rev Cycle Management, Revenue Cycle • Leave a comment
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The CEO of a group of Texas-based hospice and home health companies was sentenced Feb. 3 to 15 years in prison for his role in a $150 million healthcare fraud and money laundering scheme, according to the Department of Justice. 

Henry McInnis was sentenced more than a year after he was convicted of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, obstruction of justice and healthcare fraud. 

From 2009 to 2018, Mr. McInnis and others submitted more than $150 million in false and fraudulent claims for healthcare services. The claims were submitted through Merida Group, a hospice company with dozens of locations in Texas. 

Mr. McInnis was CEO of Merida. He had no medical training but acted as the director of nursing for the company. He also enforced a companywide practice of falsifying medical records to conceal the scheme and ordered employees to change medical records to make it appear patients were terminally ill. 

Mr. McInnis also paid bribes to physicians to certify unqualified patients for home health and hospice. 

Mr. McInnis was sentenced less than two months after the owner of Merida Group, Rodney Mesquias, was sentenced to 20 years in prison and ordered to pay $120 million in restitution. 

Atlanta home healthcare owner gets 5 years in prison for Medicaid fraud

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Whistleblower Helps Texas End $20M Fraud Case | The Texas Tribune

The owner of an Atlanta-based home healthcare provider was sentenced to five years and three months in prison for defrauding Medicaid out of nearly $1 million, the U.S. Justice Department said Dec. 2.

Diandra Bankhead, owner and operator of Elite Homecare, admitted to submitting thousands of  claims for services that were never provided to children in the Georgia Pediatric Program between September 2015 and April 2018. Children who are eligible for services under the program  typically suffer from physical and cognitive disabilities.

Ms. Bankhead and Elite Homecare submitted more than 5,400 claims to Georgia Medicaid, receiving $1.2 million in reimbursement. About $1 million was determined to be fraudulent, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said Ms. Bankhead defrauded Medicaid in several ways, including submitting  fraudulent credentialing information to become a Georgia Pediatric Program provider, submitting claims for in-home nursing services provided to families who had not hired Elite and submitting claims in which employees provided more than 24 hours of services in a day. 

“It is outrageous that Bankhead profited off children who suffered from significant physical and cognitive disabilities,” said U.S. Attorney Byung Pak. “For years her scheme exploited Medicaid-eligible children and their families by billing for services never performed and for children never seen, diverting critical resources from those who needed them most.”

Ms. Bankhead pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of healthcare fraud in August 2019. She was also ordered to pay $999,999 in restitution.

Michigan ACO executive sentenced to prison for stealing Medicare bonus

Posted on by • Posted in Accountable Care Organization (ACO), Dept of Justice (DOJ), Fiduciary Duty, Fraud and Abuse, Leadership, Misapropriation of Funds, Prison, Prison Sentence • Leave a comment

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The former CEO of Southeast Michigan Accountable Care in Dearborn was sentenced Feb. 19 to three years in prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud in connection with his theft of more than $3.4 million from the ACO, according to the Department of Justice.

Anthony Vespa was serving as executive director of SEMAC in the summer of 2017, when an audit of the ACO’s checking account revealed funds had been misappropriated. SEMAC fired Mr. Vespa in August 2017. The next month, he opened a new account for SEMAC without the authority of the ACO.

The new account information was shared with Medicare, and Medicare deposited the ACO’s shared savings bonus for 2016 into the account. After the $3.9 million bonus was deposited, Mr. Vespa wrote checks and wire transferred money out of the account for his personal use.

“The defendant had a fiduciary responsibility to safeguard the funds of the victims’ who trusted him to that task,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Steven D’Antuono said in a release. “Even after his scheme to defraud was uncovered, the defendant continued his deceitful scheme to defraud which makes it even more reprehensible.”

In addition to the prison term, Mr. Vespa was ordered to pay restitution and forfeit the full $3.4 million he stole from SEMAC. After his release from prison, Mr. Vespa will serve a two-year term of supervised release.