A federal court has sentenced Akop Atoyan, former co-owner of three California home health and hospice agencies to 25 months in prison for health care fraud and kickback schemes.
Atoyan pled guilty to the changes. He and his wife Liana Karapetyan owned ANG Health Care, Excel Hospice, and Excel Home Healthcare in the Sacramento area. The U.S. Justice Department accused the pair of submitting thousands of false claims to Medicare and of arranging more than $2 million in kickbacks in exchange for referrals.
Last July, Karapetyan received 18 months in prison for her role in the scheme.
“In total, Atoyan, Karapetyan and others caused the agencies to submit over 8,000 claims to Medicare for the cost of home health care and hospice services. Based on those claims, Medicare paid the agencies approximately $31 million,” the U.S. Justice Department indicated in a statement. “Because the agencies obtained the beneficiary referrals by paying kickbacks, the agencies should not have received any Medicare reimbursement.”
Anti-kickback violations are more likely to result in criminal charges than the civil penalties that often result from False Claims Act complaints, legal experts recently told Hospice News.
In this case, the illegal payments allegedly went to employees of hospitals, skilled nursing and assisted living facilities, as well as spouses of those individuals, according to Acting U.S. Attorney Phillip Talbert.
Some of the recipients also face prosecution. Among them are John...
WASHINGTON, D.C., DC, UNITED STATES, May 6, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Brown, LLC, a nationally recognized whistleblower law firm and leader in False Claims Act (FCA) litigation, today announced t...