20 yearsfor billing Medicare more than $150 million in false hospice claims
Texas hospice owner Rodney Mesquias was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison after the Merida Group billed Medicare more than $150 million for patients who were not terminally ill.
Mesquias was also ordered to pay $120 million in restitution. Prosecutors said Merida's marketers enrolled patients with Alzheimer's and dementia from group homes and nursing homes, and sometimes told them they had less than six months to live.
Source: US Attorney's Office, Southern District of Texas · AARP. Read more: hospice fraud · case file