Two Novus Health professionals Sentenced to Put together 23 Decades in Prison for Healthcare Fraud | USAO-NDTX

Two health professionals who helped a community hospice agency scam Medicare were sentenced now to a merged 23 yrs in jail for healthcare fraud, announced U.S. Legal professional for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

In Could, a federal jury located Novus Wellness Solutions Clinical Administrators Dr. Mark E. Gibbs and Dr. Laila Hirjee, alongside with Novus RN Tammie Minimal, guilty of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and other prices. These days, Chief U.S. District Choose Barbara M.G. Lynn sentenced Dr. Gibbs to 13 a long time in federal prison and requested him to pay $27,978,903 in restitution she sentenced Dr. Hirjee to 10 a long time in federal prison and ordered her to shell out $16,253,281 in restitution. The decide also sentenced Ms. Minor to 33 months in federal jail. 

According to evidence introduced at demo, the defendants served Novus CEO Bradley Harris defraud Medicare by, among the other items, illegally admitting clients who were being not suitable for hospice and publishing materially phony claims for hospice solutions.

Mr. Harris, who pleaded responsible prior to trial, testified from his former staff members.

He advised the jury that alternatively of relying on the expertise of licensed health-related professions, he and Novus nurses determined which patients would be admitted to or discharged from hospice care, as very well as which prescription drugs and dosages they would acquire.

They relied on Novus medical practitioners, such as Dr. Gibbs and Dr. Hirjee, to certify that they experienced examined these people experience-to-facial area, when no these exams experienced occurred, Mr. Harris testified.

Witnesses also testified that Dr. Hirjee and Dr. Gibbs engaged in the prescription of Plan II controlled substances, this kind of as morphine, hydromorphone, and fentanyl, by pre-signing blank C2 prescriptions and giving these to Brad Harris and many others at Novus to enable them prescribe controlled substances without any doctor oversight.

As Director of Operations Melanie Murphey testified on working day 5 of demo, “I was the medical professional.”

Mr. Harris and the nurses used pre-signed prescription pads, prepared by Dr. Gibbs, Dr. Hirjee, and other Novus medical practitioners, to dispense prescription drugs like morphine to clients.  When Medicare suspended payment to Novus above problems about billing, Mr. Harris, Dr. Gibbs, and other people moved individuals and employees to a new hospice firm and continued to monthly bill Medicare for hospice providers.

In total, Medicare and Medicaid paid out the Novus entities around $40 million dollars for hospice services prior to the businesses have been shut down.

“These physicians authorized Bradley Harris – an accountant with no health care knowledge – to dispense controlled substances like candy, with small to no medical oversight,” reported U.S. Legal professional Chad Meacham. “They claimed to have experienced hands-on working experience with hospice patients, when in actuality, they’d entrusted lifestyle-or-loss of life clinical conclusions to untrained businesspeople. We are content to know they will expend the subsequent ten years driving bars.”

“The defendants violated their Hippocratic Oath as physicians and alternatively concentrated on lining their pockets at the expenditure of patient security. This scenario highlights the relevance of completely investigating any grievance of health care fraud,” explained FBI Dallas Unique Agent in Charge Matthew DeSarno. “We encourage the public to aid us establish, examine, and prosecute this crime. If you suspect overall health treatment fraud, report it to the FBI at guidelines.fbi.gov, 1-800-Call-FBI, or make contact with your well being insurance coverage provider.”

A number of of their codefendants – Novus CEO Brad Harris, his spouse, Novus Vice President of Affected individual Providers Amy Harris, Novus Director of Operations Melanie Murphy, Novus Professional medical Director Charles Leach, Novus Health care Director Reziuddin Siddique (deceased), Novus Vice President of Marketing and advertising Samuel Anderson, Novus Director of Advertising and marketing Slade Brown, Novus RN Jessica Really like, Novus triage RN Patricia Armstrong, Novus LVN Taryn Stewart, and Ali Rizvi, the operator of a independent physician dwelling stop by business – pleaded responsible to numerous offenses prior to trial. Really like was sentenced 102 months, Stuart was sentenced to 96 months, Armstrong was sentenced to 84 months, Dr. Leach was sentenced to 57 months, and Anderson was sentenced to 33 months.  The remaining defendants are facing statutory maximums of between two and 14 decades in federal jail.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Subject Place of work, the U.S. Section of Wellbeing & Human Expert services Business of Inspector Typical (HHS-OIG), and the Texas Lawyer General’s Medicaid Fraud Management Unit conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Lawyers Donna Strittmatter Max and Marty Basu are prosecuting the circumstance with Assistant U.S. Lawyers Stephen Gilstrap, Gail Hayworth, and Brian McKay.