Frisco Man, 15 Others Indicted in Medicare Hospice Scheme That ‘used Human Life at Its Most Vulnerable Stage'

The owner of a Frisco-based hospice company, his wife and 14 others have been indicted in a $60 million Medicare fraud scheme that put financial interests over the needs of patients, some of whom died from overdoses at the hands of nurses, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas.Bradley J. Harris, 35, of Frisco, who owned and operated Novus Health Services and Optim Health Services Inc., is charged along with the others with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. His wife, 42-year-old Amy Harris, who co-founded Novus and worked as vice president of patient services, faces the same charge. Twelve of the defendants also face at least one other charge related to the conspiracy, according to court documents unsealed Tuesday. Five of the defendants are doctors. Five are nurses.Among the accusations are that medical directors certified that patients were eligible for hospice care whether they were or not, according to authorities. Harris would then place patients on continuous care -- which Medicare paid at a higher daily rate than routine care -- whether those patients needed it or not, according to the indictment. Nurses would then give high doses of drugs such as morphine, regardless of whether patients needed it, investigators said. In some instances, these excessive dosages resulted in serious bodily injury or death, according to investigators. In 2013, Medicare paid a daily rate of $153 for routine hospice services compared with the daily rates for continuous care that ranged from $303 to $895, according to the indictment.Hospice care provides support to patients with terminal illnesses and their families."That these defendants used human life at its most vulnerable stage as the grist for this scheme displays a shocking level of depravity that this community simply cannot tolerate," U.S. Attorney John Parker said in a news release Tuesday. The indictment alleges that from July 2012 to September 2016, Novus billed Medicare and Medicaid more than $60 million for fraudulent hospice services. More than $35 million of that was paid to Novus.The defendants are accused of submitting false claims for hospice services, submitting false claims for continuous care hospice services, recruiting ineligible hospice beneficiaries by providing kickbacks to referring physicians and healthcare facilities, and falsifying and destroying documents to conceal these activities from Medicare, federal officials say.Last March, when news of the federal investigation became public, Novus posted a statement online, saying, "We have not and would not - ever - willfully harm any patient."In addition to Harris, indictments were issued for: Amy L. Harris, 42, of Frisco; Melanie L. Murphey, 35, of Fort Worth; Patricia B. Armstrong, 33, of Coppell; Mark E. Gibbs, 46, of Lindsay; Laila N. Hirjee, 50, of Plano; Syed M. Aziz, 51, of Frisco; Reziuddin Siddique, 63, of Allen; Charles R. Leach, 64, of Arlington; Jessica J. Love, 37, of Gainesville; Ali Rizvi, 49, of Carrollton; Tammie L. Little, 55, of Brashear; Mary Jaclyn Pannell, 29, of Krum; Taryn E. Stuart, 32, of Sanger; Slade C. Brown, 47, of Plano; and Samuel D. Anderson, 35, of Carrollton.At Novus, doctors and medical directors had little oversight of patients. Instead, care was directed primarily by nurses and by Harris, a certified public accountant who didn't hold any medical licenses, authorities said.The case is being investigated by the FBI, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General and the Texas Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.  Continue reading...