The former president of a Houston hospital, his son and a co-conspirator were sentenced to 45 years, 20 years and 12 years in prison, respectively, for their roles in a $158 million Medicare fraud scheme, the US Dept. of Justice said.
Earnest Gibson III, 70, the former president of Riverside General Hospital, Earnest Gibson IV, 37, the operator of Devotions Care Solutions, a satellite psychiatric facility of Riverside General Hospital, and Regina Askew, 50, the owner of Safe and Sound group home, were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal of the Southern District of Texas on Tuesday.
“The former President of Houston’s Riverside hospital, his son and their co-conspirators saw mentally ill, elderly and disabled Medicare beneficiaries as commodities to be turned into profit centers –not as vulnerable individuals in need of health care,” said Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell said in a statement.
“Rather than providing needed medical care to a historically underserved community, the defendants ran a longstanding hospital into the ground through their greed and fraud,” she said. “According to the evidence presented at trial, the defendants had patients sit around the facility watching movies while they received no treatment. Meanwhile, the defendants billed Medicare more than $158 million for care that was never provided. This brazen fraud cannot and will not be tolerated.”
In addition to the terms of imprisonment, Earnest Gibson III was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $46,753,180, Earnest Gibson IV was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $7,518,480, and Regina Askew was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $46,255,893.
Following a five-week jury trial last year, Earnest Gibson III, Earnest Gibson IV and Regina Askew each were convicted of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks, as well as related counts of paying or receiving illegal kickbacks. Earnest Gibson III and Earnest Gibson IV also were convicted of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Co-defendant Robert Crane, a patient recruiter, also was convicted of conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks, and is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 9, 2015.
According to evidence presented at trial, from 2005 until June 2012, the defendants and others engaged in a scheme to defraud Medicare by submitting, through Riverside and its satellite locations, approximately $158 million in false and fraudulent claims for partial hospitalization program services. A PHP is a form of intensive outpatient treatment for severe mental illness.
Specifically, evidence at trial demonstrated that the Medicare beneficiaries for whom the hospital billed Medicare did not qualify for or need PHP services.
