June 5, 2014 — Our country’s Medicare program exists to provide medical care for the seniors who need it. Medicare fraud by unethical home health agencies only drives up the cost of health care for everyone. The U.S. Justice Department relies on whistleblowers to step forward about Medicare fraud by bringing a False Claims Act lawsuit. The Act’s qui tam provisions give insiders a way to do the right thing and be compensated for it. Tipsters who bring a lawsuit for the taxpayers’ benefit may receive a sizable share of any proceeds from the suit.
Director of Nursing At Texas Home Health Agency Also Convicted
A federal jury in Texas has convicted a doctor and the manager of a home health agency for helping to run a $3 million Medicare fraud scheme. Joseph Megwa, M.D. and Ebolose Eghobor, R.N., the jury found, were mixed up in a Medicare scam involving false claims for home health care.
Between 2006 and 2011, PTM Healthcare Services Inc. (PTM), was run by Ferguson Ikhile, R.N. PTM recruited Medicare beneficiaries to be used as pawns in an operation set up solely to bill Medicare for the beneficiaries’ unnecessary home health services. Ikhile, Eghobor and others created phony medical records to make it seem as though the beneficiaries needed home health services when they didn’t.
Megwa, the owner of Raphem Medical Practice P.A., participated in the scheme by certifying that the beneficiaries needed the home health care and that PTM’s services qualified for Medicare reimbursement. Megwa was paid cash for the sham certifications.
Ikhile, who owned PTM, had already pleaded guilty in connection with the scam in 2013.
Health Care Insiders Take Early Lead in Fight Against Medicare Fraud
Medicare scams like this one in Texas are often revealed by health care insiders, such as home health care employees. Still, most whistleblowers need help with filing their own qui tam lawsuit. With experienced lawyers in Texas, where the misconduct in this case occurred, and in California and the Washington D.C. area, Waters & Kraus guides whistleblowers through the process, making sure their rights are protected. Contact us by email or phone our False Claims Act lawyers at 855.784.0268 to learn more about fighting health care fraudsters.
