US authorities have sentenced Rodney Mesquias, the owner of Texas healthcare company Merida Group, to 20 years in prison for large-scale healthcare fraud and related money-laundering. The authorities have also levied restitution charges of $120 million.
Mesquias’ fraudulent scheme involved falsely telling thousands of patients with long-term incurable diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and dementia that they had less than six months to live and then enrolling them in hospice programs. This allowed Mesquias to take advantage of vulnerable patients to illicitly gain large funds from Medicare.
Mesquias ran this scheme from 2009 to 2018, minting $150 million in fraudulent claims for hospice and other health care services. Mesquias used the illicit funds to purchase expensive vehicles, jewelry, luxury clothing, exclusive real estate, etc. He also provided physicians perks worth tens of thousands of dollars to get them to continue making medically unnecessary patient referrals. He fired employees who tried to oppose the fraud. Additionally, he obstructed justice by facilitating the creation of, and then furnishing for the jury, false and fictitious medical records. Mesquias and his co-conspirator Henry McInnis have both been convicted on counts related to health care fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice.
Source: US Department of Justice