WASHINGTON—A Detroit-area registered nurse was sentenced today to serve 30 months in prison for his role in a nearly $13.8 million Medicare fraud scheme, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Barbara L. McQuade; Special Agent in Charge Robert D. Foley III of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office; and Special Agent in Charge Lamont Pugh III of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) Chicago Regional Office.
Anthony Parkman, 41, of Southfield, Mich., was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Gerald E. Rosen in the Eastern District of Michigan. In addition to his prison term, Parkman was sentenced to three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $450,988 in restitution, jointly and severally with his co-defendants.
Parkman pleaded guilty on June 26, 2012, to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
According to Parkman’s plea agreement, beginning in approximately December 2008, Parkman, a registered nurse, was paid to sign medical documentation for Physicians Choice Home Health Care LLC, a home health agency that billed and received payments from Medicare for home health care services that were never rendered. Parkman admitted to not seeing or treating the beneficiaries for whom he signed medical documentation and admitted he knew that the documents he signed would be used to support false claims to Medicare. Parkman was paid approximately $150 for each false and fictitious file that he signed.
Parkman was subsequently paid to sign falsified medical documentation and files for First Care Home Health Care LLC, Quantum Home Care Inc. and Moonlite Home Care Inc., which were Detroit-area home health care companies owned by Parkman’s co-conspirators that billed Medicare for services that were never rendered.
The four home health companies for which Parkman worked were paid in total approximately $13.8 million by Medicare. From approximately December 2008 through September 2011, Medicare paid approximately $450,988 to the four home health care companies for fraudulent skilled nursing claims based on falsified files signed by Parkman.
Nine of Parkman’s co-defendants have pleaded guilty and await sentencing. Three co-defendants are fugitives, and six co-defendants await trial.
