Posted on 06/15/2014 10:01:21 AM PDT by Larry381
The owner and operator of a Houston-area ambulance company was sentenced today to serve 97 months in prison for her role in a $2.4 million Medicare fraud scheme.
Gwendolyn Climmons-Johnson, 54, was convicted by a federal jury in Houston, Texas, on October 30, 2013, of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and four counts of health care fraud. In addition to the prison sentence, Climmons-Johnson was also sentenced to serve three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $972,132 in restitution.
According to evidence presented at trial, Climmons-Johnson was the owner and operator of Urgent Response EMS, a Texas-based entity that purportedly provided non-emergency ambulance services to Medicare beneficiaries in the Houston area. The evidence showed that from January 2010 through December 2011, Climmons-Johnson and others conspired to enrich themselves by submitting false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for ambulance services that were medically unnecessary and/or not provided. Climmons-Johnson, who controlled the day-to-day operations of Urgent Response, submitted, and caused to be submitted, approximately $2.4 million in fraudulent ambulance service claims to Medicare.
At trial, the evidence showed that patient records had been falsified and the Medicare beneficiaries for whom Climmons-Johnson had billed ambulance services did not need ambulance services and were not in the condition stated in the records.
The case was investigated by the FBI, HHS-OIG and Texas MFCU and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas. The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Christopher Cestaro and Assistant Chief Laura M.K. Cordova of the Fraud Section.
I agree.
I also wonder how that works... stole $2.4 million and ordered to pay back $972k.
“I believe this broad was also an attorney. “
Yes, just checked, and that’s true. Also would appear that she’s a “Holders Person.” No wonder there are no mugshots with the article.
Here’s more on the story. A whole passel of Holder’s people involved so it would seem!
Fees for ambulance rides in some locales are approaching $10,000.
Word is that many of the ambulance companies are now owned by international interests.
Stop being judgmental; it was a “woman/minority owned business” (a government handout already).
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