Ten Miami-Area Residents Plead Guilty in Medicare Care Fraud Scheme

Group worked at two home health agencies the Department of Justice says existed only to commit fraud

Ten employees of two Miami home health care agencies plead guilty in court Wednesday and Tuesday on charges related to a Medicare fraud scheme, several government agencies announced.

The U.S. Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, and FBI said an administrator, nurses and patient recruiters were part of a $25 million scheme that took place between 2006 and 2009 at ABC Home Health, Inc. and Florida Home Health Providers, Inc.

Though the businesses purported to provide home health and therapy services, the DOJ said, the agencies allegedly existed solely to defraid Medicare by billing for service prescribed for doctors but never performed.

Each defendant pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joan A. Lenard in Miami to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.

They are administrator Licet Diaz, 49; patient recruiters Fidel Castro, 48, Jose Ros, 71, Oscar Martinez, 54, Juana Rivas, 46, Lesder Casanova, 40, Raul Alvarez, 48, and Barbara Gonzalez, 38, along with nurses Eneida Fry, 46, and Ignacio Angulo, 48.

The Defendants were originally charged in a February 2011 indictment, part of an organized crackdown in major cities including Miami, where 25 suspects were arrested on a day that marked the the biggest sting on fraudsters since Medicare began in 1965. Five others also charged were sentenced in February.

Since its inception in March 2007, the Miami-based Medicare Fraud Strike Force has charged more than 1,140 individuals in nine locations who collectively have falsely billed the Medicare program for more than $2.9 billion, DOJ said.

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