The former owner of a home health company was sentenced to three years and five months in prison last week for his role in a nearly $8 million fraud scheme.
Specifically, Muhammad Zafar – of Wayne County, Michigan – offered kickbacks, bribes and other “inducements” to beneficiary recruiters in exchange for Medicare beneficiary information, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
“Zafar and his co-conspirators used this information to bill Medicare for services that were medically unnecessary and not provided,” the DOJ statement read. “Zafar pleaded guilty to submitting approximately $393,500 in claims to Medicare from his home health care company for services that were medically unnecessary, ineligible for Medicare reimbursement, and not provided as represented.”
On May 29, Zafar pleaded guilty to “conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud.”
He initially appeared in court in 2015, but then violated a court-issued bond. He crossed the border to Canada, and then flew to Pakistan. He was an “international fugitive” for seven and a half years before returning to the U.S. to face charges.
The Department of Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) and the Detroit FBI investigated the case.
Home health fraud impacts the entire industry. Not only does it create general distrust, but it also can impact payment for other providers and paint a false picture of adequate access.
“I think it has pulled the home health care community together to act in a high level of collaboration, in order to demonstrate to both Congress and CMS that we can be effective, and trustworthy partners,” former National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) President William A. Dombi previously told Home Health Care News. “Likewise, we’ve seen the same thing happen on the hospice side of it. It has helped unite providers of services.”
