New Orleans, LA – Shiva Akula, 68, of New Orleans, was sentenced to 240 months of imprisonment, three years of supervised release, and $2,300 in mandatory special assessment fees for orchestrating a massive healthcare fraud scheme at his hospice facility, Canon Healthcare, LLC.
A federal jury convicted Akula of all 23 counts of health care fraud in November 2023, finding that between January 2013 and December 2019, Canon billed Medicare approximately $84 million in fraudulent claims and was paid approximately $42 million relating to these claims. The court ordered Akula to repay the $42 million in fraudulent proceeds back to Medicare.
Akula, who owned and operated Canon Healthcare, oversaw the day-to-day operations of the hospice facility, which had offices in the New Orleans area, Baton Rouge, Covington, and Gulfport, Mississippi. He was convicted of 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 health care fraud in our district. Our office, along with our investigative partners, will continue to work diligently to preserve taxpayer confidence in our medical institutions and seek justice for all victims of fraud.”
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, along with Financial Litigation Coordinator Assistant U.S. Attorney Churita Hansell, prosecuted the case.
“Each fraudulent claim filed by Mr. Akula potentially deprived another deserving and suffering individual from the emotional and physical comfort of end-of-life care,” said Special Agent in Charge Lyonel Myrthil of the FBI New Orleans Division. “The FBI thanks its partners, the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District, HHS, and Louisiana’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, for their painstaking work to ensure that justice would be done in this case.”
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Key Facts
- State: Louisiana
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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