The owner of a Texas hospice chain was sentenced to 20 years in prison and will be forced to pay $120 million in restitution for a decade long scheme that took advantage of thousands of vulnerable patients.
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A jury found Rodney Mesquias guilty last week on charges of: conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to obstruct justice, conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks, and six counts of healthcare fraud.
Mesquias owned and operated Merida Group, a healthcare company with dozens of locations in Texas. The Department of Justice says Mesquias conspired with the company’s CEO and medical director to mislead thousands of people with long-term, but not fatal, illnesses into believing they had only six months to live. This led to their enrollment in Merida’s “expensive and unnecessary” group homes, nursing homes, and housing projects.
The facade was enforced further by several heinous acts taken by the three conspirators. The company went as far as sending chaplains to lie to patients and discuss last rites. Mesquias and the medical director worked together to create fraudulent medical records representing rapid health degradation when in reality, many of the patients were still engaging in regular activities like driving and coaching sporting events.
However, entering hospice care meant that Medicare would not cover curative medical treatment for these patients. Some lower level employees were privy to this, but it has been reported Mesquias fired anyone who spoke out against the scheme and encouraged complicit employees not to discharge patients as it would lose him money.
The $150 million in proceeds was laundered and then used by the three men to buy luxury cars, jewelry, clothing, real estate, season tickets for the San Antonio Spurs, and bottle service at Las Vegas nightclubs. Among other kickbacks he provided to conspirators, prosecutors say Mesquias gifted tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of alcohol to physicians in exchange for medically unnecessary patient referrals.
“Mesquias’ scheme included paying kickbacks to physicians and fraudulently enrolling vulnerable beneficiaries in hospice care that prevented them from accessing curative care — all done to steal millions of dollars from Medicare to fund lavish personal spending,” Miranda Bennett, a special agent with the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, said in a statement. “This victimization is intolerable, and our investigators and law enforcement partners will continue to work hard to bring such criminals to justice and to protect those relying on federal health care programs.”
For a scheme that took advantage of thousands and spanned almost ten years, Mesquias will now spend double that time in a federal prison.
For more articles from Haute Lawyer, visit https://hauteliving.com/hautelawyer/
Source: https://www.insider.com/texas-hospice-owner-facing-prison-time-150-million-fraud-scheme-2020-12
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