Home health agency owner gets 20-year prison sentence for fraud
Khaled Elbeblawy, of Miramar, Florida, led a 7-year fraud scheme that resulted in $57 million in false claims.
The owner and manager of three former Miami-area home health agencies will spend 20 years in prison after being convicted of conspiring to commit health care and wire fraud, and paying illegal kickbacks as part of a $57 million fraud scheme, the Department of Justice has announced.
40 year-old Khaled Elbeblawy of Miramar, Florida was also ordered to pay roughly $36.4 million in restitution for his role in the seven year scheme. He was convicted after a two-week trial of one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and pay health care kickbacks.
According to the DOJ, evidence at trial showed that from 2006 to 2013 Elbeblawy, who managed Willsand Home Health Agency Inc. and owned JEM Home Health Care and Healthy Choice Home Services, and his co-conspirators either provided home health services to Medicare beneficiaries in the Miami area which were not medically necessary, or billed Medicare for services that were not actually provided. They also paid kickbacks to doctors, patient recruiters and staffing groups who referred beneficiaries to the three agencies.
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The three health agencies billed Medicare for $57 million in fraudulent claims, roughly $40 million of which Medicare paid out, authorities said.
Willsand's owner and the former co-owner of JEM were previously sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. Healthy Choice's former co-owner pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and is due to be sentenced in October.
The case was investigated by the FBI and Healtha nd Human Services Office of the Inspector General.
Twitter: @BethJSanborn
