Nursing Home Administrator Arrested for Health Care Fraud and Taking Kickbacks
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- Published on Monday, 08 August 2011 10:40
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Nursing Home Administrator Arrested for Health Care Fraud and Taking Kickbacks
On August 4, 2011, Kelvin Washington, an administrator with Sugar Land Health Care Center in Sugar Land, Texas, was arrested as a result of a sealed indictment by a Houston grand jury charging him with healthcare fraud and violations of the anti-kickback statute. Washington, 47, is charged with scheming to unlawfully bill federal healthcare programs for ambulance transports.
Washington was arrested at his home on Thursday morning by agents of the OIG and the Texas Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. The indictment was unsealed following his arrest.
Washington, employed as an administrator at a Sugar Land area nursing home, is accused in the 10-count indictment of having received payments for the referral of dialysis patients to a Houston ambulance transport service between 2003 and 2007. Additionally, Washington is accused of conspiring with others to have unsuspecting doctors sign transport prescriptions for dialysis patients allegedly admitted to the Sugar Land nursing home where Washington works. The indictment alleges, among other matters, that the patients for whom Washington sought the prescriptions were never admitted to the nursing home.
According to the indictment, Medicare and Medicaid were billed almost a $1 million in false claims as a result of Washington’s alleged conduct. For his part in the scheme, Washington allegedly received approximately $20,000.
The name of the ambulance company or companies is not yet available.
Source:
http://www.justice.gov/usao/txs/1News/Releases/2011%20August/110804%20Washington.htm
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7684080.html
http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/sugar_land/news/article_eba4f164-fb20-5b15-939b-8cb00637c471.html