A Lancaster woman is expected to be sentenced Wednesday for her role in carrying out a hospice fraud scheme that netted more than $3.2 million from Medicare.
Callie Jean Black, 66, was convicted in March at the conclusion of a four-day bench trial in Los Angeles federal court of four counts of soliciting and receiving remunerations for patient referrals, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Victor Contreras, 69, a former physician who worked for two Pasadena hospices, pleaded guilty last year to one count of health care fraud and was sentenced in December 2024 to two years behind bars and ordered to pay $3.28 million in restitution.
The lead defendant in the case, former Pasadena resident Juanita Antenor, 63, remains at large and is believed to be in the Philippines, prosecutors said.
According to the 14-count indictment, Contreras and Antenor schemed to defraud Medicare by submitting nearly $4 million in false and fraudulent claims for services supposedly provided by the hospices Antenor controlled.
Medicare only covers hospice services for patients who are terminally ill, meaning that they have a life expectancy of six months, or less, if their illness ran its normal course.
Contreras admitted having falsely stated on claims forms that patients had terminal illnesses to make them eligible for hospice services covered by Medicare, typically adopting diagnoses provided to him by hospice employees whether or not they were true.
The ex-doctor did so even though he was not the patients’ primary care physician and had not spoken to the correct physicians about the patients’ conditions. Medicare paid on the claims supported by Contreras’ false evaluations and certifications of the patients.
Prosecutors say Antenor paid Black about $330,000 for so-called patients referred to the two hospice companies.
May they rot in hell! As a caregiver for my father, he received poor hospice care through Kaiser. I cannot imagine the true evil that was perpetrated by these people.