TX ambulance company owners sentenced in fraud case
Compliance Monitor, May 20, 2009
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United States District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal sentenced Mazen Abdallah and Wesam Abdallah, owners and operators of Americare Ambulance Service, to 30 months in federal prison for their participation in an ambulance fraud case, according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) release. The brothers were also ordered to pay $637,425 in restitution to both Medicare and Medicaid.
Americare billed Medicare and Medicaid for transporting dialysis patients to and from their homes for dialysis treatment without meeting the proper requirements. According to the DOJ, Americare patients either:
- Had no prescription
- Used a prescription where the doctor’s signature was photocopied or procured by trick from two nursing home doctors
- Were paid kickbacks to ride with their ambulance service
- Were transported by cars, but the service was billed as if by ambulance
Former owners of Americare, Ayad Fallah and Murad Almasri, were convicted of ambulance fraud in a pervious case and testified against the Abdallah’s, their cousins, in the case.
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