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Former President of Riverside General Hospital Sentenced to 45 Years in Prison
A former president of a Houston hospital and two of his associates were sentenced to prison for their roles in a $158 million Medicare fraud scheme. Earnest Gibson III, 70, the former president of Riverside General Hospital, was sentenced to 45 years in prison, while his son Earnest Gibson IV, 37, was sentenced to 20 years for operating a satellite psychiatric facility. Regina Askew, 50, the owner of a group home, was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
The defendants were convicted of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks, and related counts of paying or receiving illegal kickbacks. Earnest Gibson III and Earnest Gibson IV were also convicted of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Co-defendant Robert Crane, a patient recruiter, is scheduled to be sentenced in December 2015.
According to evidence presented at trial, from 2005 until June 2012, the defendants and others engaged in a scheme to defraud Medicare by submitting false and fraudulent claims for partial hospitalization program services. A PHP is a form of intensive outpatient treatment for severe mental illness. The Medicare beneficiaries for whom the hospital billed Medicare did not qualify for or need PHP services, and rarely saw a psychiatrist or received intensive psychiatric treatment.
Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell called the scheme ‘brazen fraud’ that ‘cannot and will not be tolerated.’ Earnest Gibson III was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $46,753,180, while his son was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $7,518,480. Regina Askew was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $46,255,893.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI’s Houston Field Office, the IRS-CI’s Houston Field Office, the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services-Office of the Inspector General, and the Railroad Retirement Board-Office of Inspector General. U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal of the Southern District of Texas presided over the case.
The scheme was uncovered after a five-week jury trial in October 2014. The defendants’ actions were described as ‘greed and fraud’ that ‘ran a longstanding hospital into the ground.’ The scheme resulted in the submission of over $158 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare.
Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell stated, ‘The former President of Houston’s Riverside hospital, his son and their co-conspirators saw mentally ill, elderly and disabled Medicare beneficiaries as commodities to be turned into profit centers – not as vulnerable individuals in need of health care.’
Key Facts
- State: Federal
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release ↗
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