A Miami home health care company owner has been sentenced to 75 months in prison for her role in a $6.5 million Medicare fraud scheme.
Cruz Sonia Collado, 64, of Homestead, Florida, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to offer and pay health care kickbacks and to defraud the United States, and one count of offering and paying health care kickbacks.
The scheme involved Nestor Home Health, a Miami home health care agency that purported to provide home health and physical therapy services to Medicare beneficiaries. Collado paid kickbacks and bribes to patient recruiters in exchange for patients who were referred to the agency for medically unnecessary and often unprovided services.
Between March 2009 and at least January 2014, Nestor Home Health submitted over $6.5 million in false claims for home health services. Medicare paid the company more than $6.1 million for these claims.
The case was investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, with assistance from the Medicare Fraud Strike Force. The strike force, which operates in nine cities across the country, has charged nearly 2,000 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for over $6 billion since its inception.
Collado was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release and pay $6,536,657 in restitution. The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Anne P. McNamara and A. Brendan Stewart of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.
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Key Facts
- State: Florida
- Category: [‘Fraud & Financial Crimes’]
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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