LAS VEGAS, Nev. – A former medical doctor and his business
partner were sentenced Tuesday to 33 months in prison for their individual
roles in a $7.1 million Medicare health care fraud scheme that occurred at
three Las Vegas hospice and home healthcare agencies, announced U.S. Attorney
Nicholas A. Trutanich for the District of Nevada.
Camilo Q. Primero, 76, of San Dimas, California, and Aurora
S. Beltran, 63, of Glendora, California, each pleaded guilty conspiracy to
commit health care fraud and money laundering. In addition to the prison term,
U.S. District Judge Andrew P. Gordon sentenced each defendant to three years of
supervised release and ordered them to pay a criminal forfeiture money judgment
of $2,492,627. The defendants agreed to make full restitution in the amount of
$2,492,627 to the United States.
From about January 2012 to about July 2017, Primero, a
former medical doctor and owner of Angel Eye Hospice, Vision Home Health Care,
and Advent Hospice, all in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Beltran, Primero’s business
partner, operated a scheme to fraudulently obtain $7.1 million from the
Medicare program. They filed false enrollment documents with Medicare to enable
Primero to operate hospice and home care agencies through nominees despite his
prior exclusion from all federal health care programs. Furthermore, they
submitted fraudulent hospice care claims for people who were not terminally ill
and did not require hospice care.
Primero and Beltran were previously convicted in California
state court for defrauding that state’s insurance system in relation to another
business named Beltran House, a residential care facility for disabled adults.
The case was investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Service, Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG), with
assistance from IRS-Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick
Burns prosecuted the case.
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