Two hospice doctors and a nurse involved in a $40 million Medicare scam have been sentenced to a combined 23 years in prison, the Department of Justice announced recently.
According to the DOJ, Bradley Harris, CEO of now-shuttered Novus Health Services, pleaded guilty in March and testified against his former employees in May. That group included Medical Directors Mark E. Gibbs, MD, and Laila Hirjee, MD, along with Novus RN Tammie Little.
Harris said he and his former employees frequently admitted patients into hospice who did not medically qualify for such care and submitted false claims to Medicare and Medicaid. He also explained Gibbs and Hirjee would certify that they had examined these patients in person when that was patently false.
Additionally, a Novus doctor testified that Gibbs, Hirjee, and other physicians prepared pre-signed prescription pads allowing Harris and nurses to provide patients with Schedule II medications such as morphine, fentanyl and hydromorphone. And after Medicare stopped reimbursing Novus over billing concerns, the guilty parties transferred patients and employees to a different hospice company and continued the fraudulent billing scheme.
All told, the false claims added up to nearly $40 million before the hospice company was shut down.
“The defendants violated their Hippocratic Oath as doctors and instead focused on lining their pockets at the expense of patient safety,” FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge Matthew DeSarno said in a Dec. 2 statement.
Gibbs was found guilty of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and sentenced to 13 years in federal prison and forced to pay nearly $28 million in restitution. Hirjee was sentenced to 10 years and ordered to pay more than $16 million, while Little was sentenced to 33 months in prison.
“These doctors allowed Bradley Harris—an accountant with no medical expertise—to dispense controlled substances like candy, with little to no medical oversight,” U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham said in a statement. “They claimed to have had hands-on experience with hospice patients, when in fact, they’d entrusted life-or-death medical decisions to untrained businesspeople. We are satisfied to know they will spend the next decade behind bars.”
Matt joined Chicago’s TriMed team in 2018 covering all areas of health imaging after two years reporting on the hospital field. He holds a bachelor’s in English from UIC, and enjoys a good cup of coffee and an interesting documentary.