Sixteen owners and operators of Novus Health Services, a home health and hospice provider based in Frisco, Texas, have been charged for their roles in a fraud scheme that involved submitting false claims to Medicare, according to the Department of Justice.
According to the indictment, Novus billed Medicare more than $60 million for fraudulent hospice services from July 2012 to September 2016. The 16 defendants submitted false claims for hospice services to Medicare, recruited ineligible hospice beneficiaries by providing kickbacks to referring physicians and healthcare facilities and falsified and destroyed documents to conceal these activities from Medicare, according to the DOJ.
Each of the 16 defendants is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, and 12 of the defendants are also charged with at least one other count related to the conspiracy.
More articles on legal and regulatory issues:
Lawsuit alleges NYC hospital charges double legal amount for medical records
Drug treatment center CEO arrested on 93 counts of patient brokering
6 latest healthcare industry lawsuits, settlements