{"id":24603,"date":"2016-06-20T21:08:33","date_gmt":"2016-06-21T04:08:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=24603"},"modified":"2016-06-20T21:11:20","modified_gmt":"2016-06-21T04:11:20","slug":"70-year-old-woman-judge-described-despicable-sentenced-eight-years-prison-hospice-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=24603","title":{"rendered":"70-Year-Old Woman, Who the Judge described as “Despicable,” Sentenced to Eight Years in Prison for Hospice Scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"Courtroom\"A federal judge sentenced a woman to eight years in prison for submitting more than $9 million in fraudulent bills to Medicare and Medi-CAl for end-of-life care to patients who were not actually dying, according to officials.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge S. James Otero<\/strong> sentenced Priscilla Villabroza,<\/strong> 70, who he characterized as \u201ccallous\u201d and \u201cdespicable.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the eight-year prison term, Judge Otero ordered the defendant to pay $7.4 million in restitution.<\/p>\n

Villabroza is one of 10 defendants who were charged in relation to a fraud scheme run out of the Covina-based California Hospice Care, which\u00a0Villabroza purchased in late 2007 while under investigation in a prior health care fraud case.<\/p>\n

Between March 2009 and June 2013, California Hospice submitted nearly $9 million in fraudulent bills to Medicare and Medi-Cal for hospice-related services, and the public health programs paid nearly $7.5 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis scheme is one of many that has victimized taxpayers who fund public healthcare programs,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Eileen M. Decker. \u201cThis scheme also victimized patients who were needlessly put into hospice and had changes made to their treatment for non-medical reasons. As this case clearly demonstrates, healthcare fraud is not a victimless crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

All 10 defendants charged in relation to the California Hospice scheme have plead guilty to healthcare fraud charges or were convicted at trial. One of the defendants was accepted into a diversion program.<\/p>\n

Following a two-week trial that ended last month, Sri Wijegoonaratna, known as Dr. J., 61, of Anaheim, and Boyao Huang, 43, of Pasadena were found guilty of federal health care fraud charges for falsely certifying that Medicare patients were terminally ill, and therefore qualified for hospice care, when the vast majority of them were not actually dying.<\/p>\n

Judge Otero is scheduled to sentence defendants Wijegoonaratna and Huang on August 15.<\/p>\n

As part of the California Hospice fraud scheme, Villabroza secretly purchased and managed the company, while representing that her daughter, who was also charged in the case, was the owner.<\/p>\n

The scheme involved illegal payments to \u201cmarketers\u201d or \u201ccappers\u201d for referrals of Medicare and Medi-Cal beneficiaries, false and fraudulent documentation by nurses and false certifications by doctors that the beneficiaries were terminally ill and therefore entitled to hospice benefits \u2013 even though the vast majority of them were not terminally ill.<\/p>\n

Participants in the scheme also fraudulently altered medical records in response to Medicare audits to make the beneficiaries appear sicker than they were in an attempt to deceive the auditors into believing that the beneficiaries were entitled to benefits, according to officials.<\/p>\n

In the prior case, Villabroza was convicted for her role in a scheme that defrauded the Medi-Cal program by fraudulently billing for in-home care provided to disabled patients.<\/p>\n

She was sentenced in that case to 4\u00bd years in federal prison.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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