A Palisade man will spend the next four years in federal prison after admitting he defrauded health care programs meant to compensate nuclear workers and certain miners.Anthony Breaux was sentenced Friday morning for health care fraud and money laundering charges. The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Christine Arguello.
… From June 2010 until June 2011, Breaux schemed and defrauded these health care benefit programs by submitting bills for payment while knowing those bills already had been paid. In other cases the defendant submitted invoices for services never provided. He obtained payments on the claims in part by submitting false supporting documentation. In total, the fraud the defendant perpetrated is over $3.5 million.Breaux recruited individuals to provide care to the DEEOIC claimants he recruited who lived on the Indian Reservation in Arizona, and these individuals were family members who were already taking care of the beneficiaries. Breaux told the family members HBHP could pay them $13 per hour for care they were providing. The individuals who provided the care to the claimants in Arizona were not Registered Nurses, but Breaux billed DEEOIC at the Registered Nurse rate, $90 to $100 per hour, for the care the family members provided. Breaux knew this was not right, but he did it because of the large amount of money he was able to bring into HBHP. Breaux also forged doctor signatures he submitted to DEEOIC so that DEEOIC would authorize 24 hour, 7 day a week home health care.
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