{"id":18703,"date":"2015-12-28T14:30:08","date_gmt":"2015-12-28T22:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=18703"},"modified":"2015-12-28T14:30:08","modified_gmt":"2015-12-28T22:30:08","slug":"health-providers-scammed-medicare-13-4-million-home-health-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=18703","title":{"rendered":"Health Providers Scammed Medicare of $13.4 Million Through Home Health Services"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>WASHINGTON<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/U.S.-Department-of-Justice.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5906 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/U.S.-Department-of-Justice.jpg\" alt=\"U.S. Department of Justice\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/U.S.-Department-of-Justice.jpg 200w, https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/U.S.-Department-of-Justice-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>The co-owners of a home health company in Dallas and two nurse employees were charged last week with paying recruiters for home health services, regardless of whether the beneficiaries needed some home health care, according to officials.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">In addition, the defendants filled out Medicare paperwork that made it appear that the beneficiaries qualified for home health services, officials said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">These documents were used by doctors to certify Medicare beneficiaries for home health care, according to officials.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Patience Okoroji<\/strong>, 57, Usani Ewah, 58, <strong>Kingsley Nwanguma<\/strong>, 45, all of Dallas County, Texas, and <strong>Joy Ogwuegbu,<\/strong> 39, of Collin County, Texas, were each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, authorities said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">In addition, officials said Okoroji and Ewah are each charged with five counts of health care fraud; Nwanguma is charged with three counts of health care fraud and Ogwuegbu is charged with four counts of health care fraud.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The indictment alleged that the defendants participated in a $13.4 million health care fraud, , officials said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Okoroji and Ewah co-owned Timely Home Health Services Inc. (Timely), where Okoroji was also an administrator and licensed vocational nurse and Ewah was the director of nursing and a registered nurse. Nwanguma was a licensed vocational nurse working for Timely and Ogwuegbu was a registered nurse working for Timely.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The indictment alleges that the fraud occurred from about January 2007 to September 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The indictment alleges that during the scheme, Okoroji and Ewah billed Medicare about $13.4 million based on false and fraudulent claims for home health services, officials said.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The co-owners of a home health company in Dallas and two nurse employees were charged with paying recruiters for home health services, regardless of whether the beneficiaries needed some home health care, according to officials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3],"tags":[44],"class_list":["post-18703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-main-slider","category-u-s-department-of-justice","tag-medicare-fraud"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Health Providers Scammed Medicare of $13.4 Million Through Home Health Services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The co-owners of a home health company in Dallas and two nurse employees were charged with paying recruiters for home health services, regardless of whether the beneficiaries needed some home health care, according to officials.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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