A Placentia nurse already serving a prison term for defrauding Medi-Cal is facing new federal charges stemming from her operation of a hospice that submitted millions of dollars in allegedly fraudulent bills to Medicare and Medi-Cal, prosecutors announced Monday.
Priscilla Villabroza, 68, and her daughter, Sharon Patrow, are each charged with 25 health care fraud and money laundering counts, each one of which carries a potential multiple-year prison sentence, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Villabroza is currently serving a 4 1/2-year term at a federal prison in Victorville after being convicted of running a separate health care fraud scheme.
Villabroza is one of six defendants charged in a scam involving Covina- based California Hospice Care, which she purchased in late 2007 while under investigation in the earlier case.
Prosecutors allege that between March 2009 and June 2013, California Hospice submitted nearly $9 million in fraudulent bills to Medicare and Medi- Cal for purportedly providing end-of-life care to patients who were, in fact, not dying. The public health programs paid nearly $7.5 million on those allegedly bogus bills.
According to the indictment, Villabroza and her daughter paid patient recruiters known as “marketers” or “cappers” to bring in Medicare and Medi- Cal beneficiaries.
As part of the scheme, registered nurses at California Hospice performed “assessments” to determine whether the beneficiary was terminally ill and, regardless of the outcome, two doctors at the hospice certified that the beneficiary was dying — even though the vast majority of them were not terminally ill, prosecutors said.
Personnel at California Hospice allegedly altered medical records in response to Medicare audits to make the beneficiaries appear sicker. In the end, Medicare and Medi-Cal paid millions of dollars for medically unnecessary hospice-related services, according to the indictment.
The five defendants who were taken into custody last week are:
— Patrow, 43, of Placentia, who operated California Hospice with her mother;
— Dr. Sri Wijegoonaratna, 60, of Anaheim Hills, a physician who worked at the hospice and allegedly recruited patients;
— Dr. Boyoa Huang, 41, of Pasadena, another doctor at California Hospice;
— Nancy Briones, 74, of Mira Loma, a registered nurse who also allegedly recruited patients to be “treated” at California Hospice; and
— Roseilyn Montana, 52, of San Bernardino, who allegedly recruited patients.
Trial is expected to take place next year before U.S. District Judge S. James Otero.
— City News Service