A Glendale woman and a Lakewood man are set to be sentenced in April for paying and receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal kickbacks for patient referrals that resulted in the submission of roughly $3.2 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare for purported hospice care.
Nita Palma, 75, was found guilty late Wednesday of a dozen counts of health care fraud and 16 counts of paying illegal kickbacks for health care referrals. Percy Abrams, 74, was found guilty of six counts of receiving illegal kickbacks for health care referrals, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Evidence presented at a six-day trial in L.A. federal court showed Palma was excluded from Medicare, a federal health insurance program for people aged 65 and older, because of prior federal convictions for receiving illegal kickbacks.
While she was excluded from Medicare, Palma purchased Magnolia Gardens Hospice through her daughter in 2015 and concealed her ownership interest in Magnolia Gardens Hospice from Medicare, federal prosecutors said.
Palma then paid “marketers,” including Abrams, hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal kickbacks for patient referrals that Palma could bill to Medicare for purported hospice care.
Evidence showed that consistent with instructions provided by Palma, Abrams falsely represented to prospective patients that they did not need to be dying to be on hospice. After collecting personal identifying information from prospective patients that were not dying, Abrams sent the information to Palma so she could bill Medicare for purported hospice care, according to federal prosecutors.
Through Magnolia Gardens Hospice, Palma caused the submission of about $3.2 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare in 2015 and 2016 for purported hospice care for patients who were not dying.
Palma received about $6,000 each month a patient was billed to Medicare for hospice. In turn, Palma paid Abrams and other marketers up to $1,000 per month in illegal kickbacks for each patient referred to her that was billed to Medicare for hospice. Many of the patients that were billed to Medicare through Magnolia Gardens Hospice did not know they were signed up for hospice, and some patients only found out after they were denied medical coverage for services they needed, the downtown Los Angeles jury was told.
U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee scheduled a sentencing hearing for April 23, at which time Palma and Abrams will each face a sentence of up to decades in federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.