Owners of Two Miami Home Health Companies Plead Guilty in $48 Million Health Care Fraud Scheme

WASHINGTON—The owners and operators of two Miami health care agencies pleaded guilty today for their participation in a $48 million home health Medicare fraud scheme, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer of the Southern District of Florida; Michael B. Steinbach, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Miami Field Office; and Special Agent in Charge Christopher Dennis of the HHS Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), Office of Investigations Miami Office.

Rogelio Rodriguez, 43, and Raymond Aday, 48, each pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Federico A. Moreno in the Southern District of Florida to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

According to court documents, Rodriguez was the owner of both Caring Nurse Home Health Corp. and Good Quality Home Health Inc., and Aday was a manager at Caring Nurse and owner of Good Quality.

According to plea documents, Rodriguez and Aday conspired with patient recruiters for the purpose of billing the Medicare program for unnecessary home health care and therapy services. Rodriguez, Aday, and their alleged co-conspirators paid kickbacks and bribes to patient recruiters in return for these recruiters providing patients to Caring Nurse and Good Quality, as well as prescriptions, plans of care (POCs), and certifications for medically unnecessary therapy and home health services for Medicare beneficiaries. Rodriguez and Aday used these prescriptions, POCs and medical certifications to fraudulently bill the Medicare program for home health care services, which Rodriguez and Aday knew was in violation of federal criminal laws.

According to court documents, at Caring Nurse and Good Quality, nurses and office staff falsified patient files for Medicare beneficiaries to make it appear as though those beneficiaries qualified for home health care and therapy services from Caring Nurse and Good Quality when, in fact, Rodriguez and Aday knew that the beneficiaries did not actually qualify for and did not receive such services. Rodriguez admitted to knowing that these files were falsified so that the Medicare program could be billed for medically unnecessary therapy and home health related services.

From approximately January 2006 through June 2011, Caring Nurse and Good Quality submitted approximately $48 million in claims for home health services that were not medically necessary and/or not provided. According to court documents, Medicare paid approximately $33 million for these fraudulent claims.

At sentencing, scheduled for February 27, 2013, Rodriguez and Aday each face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

This case is being prosecuted by Senior Trial Attorney Joseph S. Beemsterboer of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. The case was investigated by the FBI and HHS-OIG, and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.

Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, now operating in nine cities across the country, has charged more than 1,480 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $4.8 billion. In addition, HHS’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with HHS-OIG, is taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.

To learn more about the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), go to www.stopmedicarefraud.gov.