A health care worker who sold Medicare beneficiary information to Detroit-area home health agency operators as part of a $24.7 million home health care fraud conspiracy pleaded guilty today for his role in the scheme, which sought to profit by billing for home healthcare services that were medically unnecessary and not provided.
The guilty plea was announced by Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Barbara L. McQuade, Special Agent in Charge Robert D. Foley III of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office and Special Agent in Charge Lamont Pugh III of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), Chicago Regional Office.
Clarence Cooper, 54, of Detroit, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Victoria A. Roberts in the Eastern District of Michigan to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
According to court documents, Cooper and others conspired to defraud Medicare through purported home health care companies operating in the Detroit area, including now-defunct First Choice Home Health Care Services Inc. and Reliance Home Care, LLC. Cooper admitted that he sold Medicare information he obtained from Detroit-area Medicare beneficiaries to other conspirators at these and other health care companies, knowing that it was to be used to submit claims to Medicare for home health services that were not medically necessary and/or not provided. According to court documents, from 2008 through May 2012, Cooper sold co-conspirators the Medicare information of hundreds of Medicare beneficiaries, at $200 to $300 per beneficiary, and this Medicare information was used at these companies to bill Medicare for nearly $1 million in home health care services.
Court documents show that the larger scheme in which Cooper participated resulted in more than $24.7 million in claims to Medicare for the cost of home health services, psychotherapy and other medical services.
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