A Glendale woman was sentenced Tuesday to nine years in federal prison for her role in a scheme in which illegal kickbacks were paid for patient referrals that resulted in the submission of nearly $10.6 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare for purported hospice care.
Nita Almuete Paddit Palma, 75, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee, who also ordered her to pay $8.27 million in restitution, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
At a separate hearing Tuesday in Los Angeles federal court, the judge sentenced Percy Dean Abrams, 75, of Lakewood, to three years of probation, which will include two years of home confinement.
At the conclusion of a six-day trial, a federal jury in December 2024 found Palma guilty of a dozen counts of health care fraud and 16 counts of paying illegal kickbacks for health care referrals. The jury also found Abrams guilty of six counts of receiving illegal kickbacks for health care referrals.
Palma was excluded from Medicare, a federal health insurance program for people aged 65 and older, because of prior federal convictions for receiving illegal kickbacks. While she was excluded from Medicare, Palma purchased Magnolia Gardens Hospice through her daughter and bought C@A Hospice through her husband in 2015 and concealed her ownership interest in both hospices from Medicare, evidence showed.
Palma then paid “marketers,” including Abrams, hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal kickbacks for patient referrals that she could bill to Medicare for purported hospice care, according to evidence presented at trial.
Through Magnolia Gardens Hospice and C@A Hospice, Palma caused the submission of nearly $10.6 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare beginning in 2015 for purported hospice care for patients that were not dying.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Palma received nearly $6,000 each month a patient was billed to Medicare for hospice. In turn, Palma paid Abrams and other marketers up to $1,000 per month in illegal kickbacks for each patient referred to her that was billed to Medicare for hospice.
Many of the patients that were billed to Medicare through Magnolia Gardens Hospice did not know they were signed up for hospice, and some patients only found out after they were denied medical coverage for services they needed, court papers show.
Court documents allege that while awaiting trial in the case, Palma took control of three other hospices and caused the submission of nearly $4.8 million in claims for purported hospice care.