NEW ORLEANS – In a stunning display of greed, Shiva Akula, a 68-year-old hospice owner from New Orleans, has been sentenced to 240 months in prison for orchestrating an extensive healthcare fraud scheme that bilked Medicare out of $42 million.
U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that on May 15, 2024, U.S. District Judge Lance Africk handed down the sentence, which also includes three years of supervised release and $2,300 in mandatory special assessment fees.
Akula, who owned and operated Canon Healthcare, LLC, a hospice facility with offices in the New Orleans area, Baton Rouge, Covington, and Gulfport, Mississippi, was convicted by a federal jury in November 2023 of all 23 counts of healthcare fraud.
The scheme, which spanned from January 2013 to December 2019, involved Akula billing Medicare for approximately $84 million in fraudulent claims, with the government paying out around $42 million in relation to these claims. The court has ordered Akula to repay the $42 million in fraudulent proceeds back to Medicare.
Akula’s crimes included overbilling for hospice patients for expensive General Inpatient (GIP) services and manipulating Medicare billing codes, known as Common Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes, despite such services being medically unnecessary.
“Today’s sentencing signals the end of a long, complicated, and challenging prosecution,” said U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans. “However, this conclusion exhibits our commitment to fighting healthcare fraud in our district.”
Jason E. Meadows, Special Agent in Charge at the United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), added, “Shiva Akula showed no regard for quality end-of-life hospice care. Instead, Akula’s motivation centered around multiple fraud schemes to maximize profit and steal from American taxpayers.”
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, and the Louisiana Department of Justice, Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kathryn McHugh and J. Ryan McLaren are in charge of the prosecution, with assistance from Financial Litigation Coordinator, Assistant U.S. Attorney Churita Hansell.
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Key Facts
- State: Louisiana
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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