Eulises Escalona, Medicare Fraud, Florida 2024

MIAMI, FL – Eulises Escalona, 43, pleaded guilty today in a $42 million home health Medicare fraud scheme, announced the FBI and the HHS Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG).

Escalona, the owner and operator of Willsand Home Health Inc., a Miami health care agency, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joan A. Lenard to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

As part of his plea agreement, Escalona agreed to forfeit to the government two residential properties and cash proceeds of the fraud contained in several bank accounts.

According to the court documents, Escalona conspired with patient recruiters to bill the Medicare program for unnecessary home health care and therapy services.

Escalona and his co-conspirators paid kickbacks and bribes to patient recruiters in return for providing patients to Willsand Home Health, as well as prescriptions, Plans of Care (POCs) and certifications for medically unnecessary therapy and home health services for Medicare beneficiaries.

Escalona and his co-conspirators would pay kickbacks and bribes directly to physicians in exchange for prescriptions, POCs and medical certifications to fraudulently bill the Medicare program for home health care services.

From approximately January 2006 through November 2009, Escalona and his co-conspirators submitted approximately $42 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare, with the program paying out approximately $27 million on those claims.

The case is being prosecuted by Senior Trial Attorney Joseph S. Beemsterboer of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.

The case was investigated by the FBI and HHS-OIG, and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.

Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force has charged more than 1,330 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $4 billion.

To learn more about the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), visit www.stopmedicarefraud.gov.

Related Federal Cases