2 Fil-Ams arrested for $4.8 million alleged hospice care fraud
Two Filipino Americans have been arrested for $4.8 million alleged hospice care fraud. FILE PHOTO
LOS ANGELES – The Filipino American owner-operator of hospices in West Covina was arrested Tuesday for allegedly billing more than $4.8 million in bogus claims to Medicare for medically unnecessary services and paying kickbacks to marketers to procure patients.
Normita Sierra, 71, of West Covina is charged with nine counts of health care fraud, one count of conspiracy, and four counts of illegal remuneration for health care referrals, according to the US Attorney’s Office.
Also arrested Tuesday was Rowena Elegado, 55, also a Filipino American from West Covina, who is charged with one count of conspiracy, and four counts of illegal remuneration for health care referrals, federal prosecutors said.
According to the indictment, Sierra owned and operated Golden Meadows Hospice Inc. and D’Alexandria Hospice Inc., which billed Medicare for hospice services for patients who were not terminally ill during a scheme that lasted from September 2018 to October 2022.
Sierra and Elegado allegedly worked together to pay marketers to recruit patients to the hospices, knowing that most of those patients had not been referred by their primary care physicians for such services, court papers show.
The kickbacks amounted to as much as $1,300 per patient, per each month that the patient stayed on hospice service, according to prosecutors.
Once enrolled, the patients — who were not in fact terminally ill — rarely died, and instead were often discharged at around six months allegedly at Sierra’s direction, sometimes to her home health company or the other
hospice company, according to the US Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors contend that during the scheme, Golden Meadows submitted at least $3.8 million in fraudulent claims, on which Medicare paid nearly $2.9 million. D’Alexandria submitted nearly $1 million in phony claims, on which Medicare paid about $894,200, prosecutors allege.
If convicted as charged, Sierra would face up to 10 years in federal prison for each health care fraud count. Sierra and Elegado would face up to five years each for the conspiracy count and up to 10 years in prison for each illegal kickback count, prosecutors noted. (With CNS report)
