Texas Medicare Fraud Scheme Results in $339 Million Judgment

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A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas recently entered a judgment in a Medicare fraud case against four defendants valued at a total of $339,402,631.

The judgment stems from a whistleblower claim filed in 2013 by Grant Bachman, who filed his initial lawsuit against multiple home health care agencies and other individuals, including former doctors Ransome Etindi and Noble Ezukanma. Bachman was a former employee of U.S. Physician Home Visits.

Case background

The case represented one of the largest cases of fraud involving home health care agencies in the history of the United States. Indictments were officially issued in June 2015, and multiple individuals (including the aforementioned doctors) were charged with conspiracy to commit Medicare fraud.

Three of the four individuals in the case pled guilty. One was sentenced to 120 months in prison and nearly $52 million in restitution. One was sentenced to 30 months in prison and more than $18 million in restitution. The third was sentenced to 60 months in prison and more than $9 million in restitution.

The fourth, Ezukanma, was also charged with Medicare fraud in addition to the conspiracy charges. He was found guilty on all charges in a jury trial and sentenced to 200 months in prison and $34 million in incarceration.

Etindi and Ezukanma billed more than 100 hours per day to Medicare on multiple occasions for physician home visits, with the most for a single day topping out at 205.9 hours per day. There were 21 total occasions on which the two billed for more than 24 hours per day.

For more information about how you can bring a whistleblower claim if you become aware of wrongdoing within your organization, contact an attorney at Kardell Law Group.

By Steve Kardell | Published November 7, 2019 | Posted in Fraud, Whistleblower Litigation | Tagged $339 Million Judgment, 200 months in prison and $34 million in incarceration, Medicare Fraud, whistleblower, whistleblower claim

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