Two hospice doctors and a nurse involved in a $40 million Medicare scam have been sentenced to a combined 23 years in prison, the Department of Justice announced recently.
According to the DOJ, Bradley Harris, CEO of now-shuttered Novus Health Services, pleaded guilty in March and testified against his former employees in May. That group included Medical Directors Mark E. Gibbs, MD, and Laila Hirjee, MD, along with Novus RN Tammie Little.
Harris said he and his former employees frequently admitted patients into hospice who did not medically qualify for such care and submitted false claims to Medicare and Medicaid. He also explained Gibbs and Hirjee would certify that they had examined these patients in person when that was patently false.
Additionally, a Novus doctor testified that Gibbs, Hirjee, and other physicians prepared pre-signed prescription pads allowing Harris and nurses to provide patients with Schedule II medications such as morphine, fentanyl and hydromorphone. And after Medicare stopped reimbursing Novus over billing concerns, the guilty parties transferred patients and employees to a different hospice company and continued the fraudulent billing scheme.
All told, the false claims added up to nearly $40 million before the hospice company was shut down.
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