Earnest Gibson, former psych hospital manager, gets 20 years, will pay $53 million over fraud

Evidence showed patients were placed in front of a television to watch movies instead receiving the intensive outpatient treatment for severe mental illness for which Medicare was billed.

The former president of Riverside General Hospital and his son have been sentenced to prison and ordered to repay over $53 million for their role in a $158 million Medicare fraud scheme.

Earnest Gibson III, 70, the former president of the Houston psychiatric facility and his son, Earnest Gibson IV, 37, the operator of Devotions Care Solutions, a satellite psychiatric facility of Riverside General Hospital, received prison sentences of 20 and 12 years, respectively.

[Also: Running list of notable 2015 healthcare frauds]

Earnest Gibson III was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $46,753,180; Earnest Gibson IV was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $7,518,480.

Instead of patients receiving the intensive outpatient treatment for severe mental illness for which Medicare was billed, they were placed in front of a television to watch movies, according to evidence presented at trial. The patients did not qualify for or need the Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) services, and some were suffering from Alzheimer’s and could not have actively participated, according to the Department of Justice.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell said their greed ran a longstanding hospital into the ground.

“The former President of Houston's Riverside hospital, his son and their co-conspirators saw mentally ill, elderly and disabled Medicare beneficiaries as commodities to be turned into profit centers – not as vulnerable individuals in need of health care,” Caldwell said.

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Father and son also paid kickbacks to patient recruiters, including defendant Regina Askew, 50, the owner of Safe and Sound group home, according to the Department of Justice.

Askew was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $46.3 million.

From 2005 until 2012, the defendants and others defrauded Medicare by submitting approximately $158 million in false claims, according to authorities.

Sentencing took place June 9 in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas, after a five-week jury trial in October 2014.

Six other individuals have pleaded guilty based on their involvement in the scheme, the Justice Department said. 

Twitter: @SusanMorseHFN