Antonio Olivera, administrator of Southern California-based home health and hospice agency Mhiramarc Management LLC, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for his role in a Medicare fraud scheme involving $28 million in falsified health care claims.
Olivera pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud in November 2020, resulting in millions of illegal kickbacks paid to local patient referral sources for unnecessary or unprovided hospice services.
“As part of his guilty plea, Olivera admitted that from 2011 to 2018, while acting as administrator for Mhiramarc Management LLC (Mhiramarc), a hospice located in Downey, California, Olivera and others paid illegal kickbacks to patient recruiters for the referral of hospice beneficiaries to Mhiramarc,” the U.S. Justice Department indicated in a statement. “Further, when clinical staff at Mhiramarc determined beneficiary referrals did not qualify to receive hospice services, Olivera overruled those determinations and nonetheless caused the beneficiaries to be put on hospice service.”
Source: Mhiramarc Exec Sentenced in $28 Million Hospice Fraud Scheme / Hospice News