Santa Paula physician sentenced for certifying patients as terminal who were not
Dr. Victor Contreras, a Santa Paula, California physician, and co-defendant Juanita Antenor schemed from July 2016 to February 2019 to defraud Medicare through two Pasadena hospice companies Antenor controlled, Arcadia Hospice Provider Inc. and Saint Mariam Hospice Inc. Contreras falsely certified patients as terminally ill, typically adopting diagnoses hospice employees supplied rather than diagnoses he reached himself, despite not being the patients' primary care physician. The scheme submitted nearly $4 million in false claims, of which Medicare paid approximately $3,289,889. Contreras pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud in July 2024 and was sentenced in December 2024 to 24 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $3,289,889 in restitution.
- Year
- 2024
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Sentenced
- Reported loss
- $3.3 million
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Hospice fraud
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-13
The facts, as recorded
- Dr. Victor Contreras, 69, of Santa Paula, California, worked for two Pasadena hospices, Arcadia Hospice Provider Inc. and Saint Mariam Hospice Inc., both controlled by co-defendant Juanita Antenor.
- From July 2016 to February 2019, Contreras and Antenor schemed to defraud Medicare by submitting nearly $4 million in false and fraudulent claims for hospice services.
- Medicare only covers hospice services for patients who are terminally ill, meaning a life expectancy of six months or less if the illness ran its normal course.
- Contreras falsely stated on claims forms that patients had terminal illnesses, typically adopting diagnoses hospice employees supplied to him whether or not they were true.
- Contreras certified and recertified these patients even though he was not their primary care physician and had not spoken to their actual primary care physicians about their conditions.
- In total, approximately $3,917,946 in fraudulent claims were submitted to Medicare, of which approximately $3,289,889 was actually paid.
- According to Medical Board of California records, Contreras has been on probation with the Board since 2015 and is subject to practice limitations.
- Contreras pleaded guilty on July 24, 2024 to one count of health care fraud.
- US District Judge Andre Birotte Jr. sentenced Contreras on December 16, 2024 to 24 months in federal prison and ordered him to pay $3,289,889 in restitution.
- Co-defendant Juanita Antenor, who controlled both hospice companies, remained at large as of the sentencing; a separate co-defendant, Callie Black, who allegedly recruited patients for kickbacks, had pleaded not guilty and faced trial.
Why this case matters
This case shows the physician’s role in the scheme separately from the hospice owner’s. Contreras did not own either hospice company and was not accused of taking kickbacks for referrals; his part was supplying the medical certification the fraud depended on, adopting a diagnosis someone else handed him rather than reaching one through his own examination.
A certification with no independent basis
Medicare’s hospice benefit exists because a doctor is supposed to independently judge that a patient has six months or less to live. The government’s case against Contreras turned on showing that judgment never actually happened. He was not the patients’ own doctor, had not spoken to their real physicians, and signed off on a prognosis the hospice itself had already decided on before he ever saw the file.
The caveat
Contreras pleaded guilty and has been sentenced; the facts above describing his conduct, the dollar figures and the scheme period come from the Justice Department’s own account of the case against him, which he admitted in his plea, not from an unresolved accusation. Two other people connected to the same hospice companies have not reached that point: Juanita Antenor, who prosecutors say controlled both companies, remained a fugitive at the time of this sentencing, and Callie Black had pleaded not guilty and was awaiting trial. Nothing above states as fact anything beyond what Contreras’s own guilty plea and sentencing established.
Sources
- Santa Paula Doctor Sentenced to 2 Years in Federal Prison for Role in Hospice Fraud that Bilked Medicare Out of $3.2 Million. US Attorney's Office, Central District of California. Accessed 2026-10-13. Supports: Every fact above: Contreras's role and age, the two Pasadena hospice companies and Antenor's control of them, the July 2016 to February 2019 scheme period, the adopted-rather-than-independent diagnoses, the $3,917,946 submitted and $3,289,889 paid, his medical board probation, his July 2024 guilty plea, his December 16, 2024 sentencing and restitution, and the status of co-defendants Antenor and Black.