Detroit Home Health Care Worker Sentenced for Role in $5.8 Million Fraud

On the heels of recent home health care-related fraud developments sprouting up nationwide, a new $5.8 million Medicare scheme has landed a prison sentence for an office manager of a Detroit-area home care agency.

Nabila Mahbub, 28, was sentenced Wednesday by a federal judge in the Eastern District of Michigan to serve 46 months in prison for her role in the $5.8 million scheme. 

Mahbub, who worked as an office manager for Oak Park, Michigan-based All American Home Care Inc., used patient recruiters who paid Medicare beneficiaries to sign blank documents for physical therapy services that were either never provided or were not medically necessary, according to evidence at trial referenced by the Department of Justice.

Advertisement

Additionally, court documents also reported that the owners of All American paid physicians to sign referrals and other therapy documents necessary to bill Medicare, which were used to make it appear as if the services were actually rendered when, in fact, they were not. 

The case of All American Home Care Inc. is similar to other recent instances where home health fraud to the Medicare and Medicaid programs have been surfacing, such as recent developments in Florida, Massachusetts, Illinois and even in Michigan again, where a $7 doctor plead guilty to a $7 million home health scheme last week. 

A jury convicted Mahbub of one count of health care fraud conspiracy in April 2013. 

Advertisement

In addition to her prison term, Mahbub was also sentenced to serve two years of supervised release and was ordered to pay more than $3 million in restitution, jointly and severally with her co-defendants.

Written by Jason Oliva