Owner of People Choice Home Care Inc., Paul Mil, 67, of Springfield, N.J. was sentenced to 54 months in prison after pleading guilty in Newark federal court to conspiracy to commit health care fraud, money laundering and tax evasion, according to the Department of Justice. In total, Mil, along with others, defrauded Medicaid out of $7 million.
Mil was also the registered agent for HHCH Health Care Inc., where he helped perform Medicaid fraud. The first act of fraud was when he and the owner of HHCH Health Care Inc., Irina Krutoyarsky, 62, of Springfield, N.J. submitted false documents to the New Jersey Board of Nursing.
Krutoyarsky falsely represented that prospective home health aides had attended and satisfactorily completed required training and testing. What really happened was Krutoyarsky charged prospective home health aides hundreds of dollars for fraudulently obtaining their certifications.
The next fraudulent act included Mil, Krutoyarsky and others billing Medicaid services that were not actually rendered to patients. Home health aides at HHCH routinely falsified records that claimed they had visited patients and provided health care services, but that wasn’t the case. The home health aides really had other jobs, were on vacations out of the country, or were in other parts of the state during the times they claimed to be with patients.
The third scheme included Mil, Krutoyarsky and others. They hired individuals with no home health certifications and no status in the country and then sent them to patients’ homes. After this, they billed Medicaid, fraudulently claiming that the services had been provided by duly certified home health aides.
The millions of dollars Mil defrauded Medicaid out of was found to be used to purchase real estate and personal property. In addition to all of these schemes, between 2007 and 2011, Mil cheated the IRS out of approximately $918,000 in taxes due and owing.
In addition to his 54 month prison sentence, Mil was ordered to serve three years of supervised release and ordered to pay forfeiture of $7 million. Mil also had to forfeit six homes and properties in New Jersey and New York as par of his plea agreement.
Written by Alana Stramowski
Companies featured in this article:
HHCH Health Care Inc, New Jersey Board of Nursing, People Choice Health Care In.
