Healthcare Fraud: Khaled Elbeblawy Sentenced for Role in $57 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme

FraudsWatch.com
Medicare Fraud Scheme

<h2>Former Owner and Manager of Miami-Area Home Health Agencies Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for Role in &dollar;57 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>The owner and manager of three now-defunct Miami-area home health agencies was sentenced today to 240 months in prison for his role in a &dollar;57 million Medicare fraud scheme&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Assistant Attorney General Leslie R&period; Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division&comma; U&period;S&period; Attorney Wifredo A&period; Ferrer of the Southern District of Florida&comma; Special Agent in Charge George L&period; Piro of the FBI’s Miami Field Office and Special Agent in Charge Shimon R&period; Richmond of the U&period;S&period; Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s &lpar;HHS-OIG&rpar; Miami Regional Office made the announcement&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Khaled Elbeblawy&comma; 40&comma; of Miramar&comma; Florida&comma; was sentenced by U&period;S&period; District Judge Beth Bloom of the Southern District of Florida&comma; who also ordered Elbeblawy to pay approximately &dollar;36&comma;400&comma;957 in restitution and to forfeit the same amount&period;  On Jan&period; 21&comma; 2016&comma; Elbeblawy was convicted after a two-week trial of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and pay health care kickbacks&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to evidence presented at trial&comma; Elbeblawy managed Willsand Home Health Agency Inc&period; &lpar;Willsand&rpar; and owned JEM Home Health Care LLC &lpar;JEM&rpar; and Healthy Choice Home Services Inc&period; &lpar;Healthy Choice&rpar;&period;  The evidence showed that through these three entities&comma; from approximately 2006 to 2013&comma; Elbeblawy and his co-conspirators purported to provide home health services to Medicare beneficiaries in the Miami area&comma; which were not medically necessary and often were never even provided&period;  Elbeblawy and his co-conspirators paid kickbacks to doctors&comma; patient recruiters and staffing groups&comma; which&comma; in exchange&comma; referred beneficiaries to Willsand&comma; JEM and Healthy Choice&comma; the evidence showed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Evidence presented at trial showed that the three agencies submitted a total of approximately &dollar;57 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare&comma; and received payments totaling approximately &dollar;40 million on those claims&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On Oct&period; 15&comma; 2012&comma; Eulises Escalona&comma; the former owner of Willsand and the former co-owner of JEM&comma; was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud&period;  Cynthia Vilches&comma; the former co-owner of Healthy Choice&comma; was charged by information and pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud&period;  Vilches is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct&period; 13&comma; 2016&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The FBI and HHS-OIG investigated the case&comma; which was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force&comma; supervised by the Criminal Division&&num;8217&semi;s Fraud Section and the U&period;S&period; Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Florida&period;  Assistant Chief Nicholas E&period; Surmacz and Trial Attorney Vasanth Sridharan of the Fraud Section prosecuted the case&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Since its inception in March 2007&comma; the Medicare Fraud Strike Force&comma; now operating in nine cities across the country&comma; has charged nearly 2&comma;900 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than &dollar;10 billion&period;  In addition&comma; the HHS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services&comma; working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG&comma; are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>To learn more about the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team &lpar;HEAT&rpar;&comma; go to <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;stopmedicarefraud&period;gov&sol;">www&period;stopmedicarefraud&period;gov<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;opa&sol;pr&sol;former-owner-and-manager-miami-area-home-health-agencies-sentenced-20-years-prison-role-57">Original PressReleases &&num;8230&semi;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;

Share This Article
Follow:
FraudsWatch is а site reporting on fraud and scammers on internet, in financial services and personal. Providing a daily news service publishes articles contributed by experts; is widely reported in thе latest compliance requirements, and offers very broad coverage of thе latest online theft cases, pending investigations and threats of fraud.
Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Exit mobile version