A doctor accused of providing fraudulent patient certifications and a marketer accused of taking kickbacks are charged. A third suspect, the hospice owner, remains at large.
A Ventura County doctor and a marketer from Lancaster were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of carrying out a hospice fraud scheme that netted more than $30 million from Medicare, federal authorities said.
Dr. Victor Contreras, 66, of Santa Paula, and Callie Jean Black, 63, of Lancaster were arraigned Tuesday and pleaded not guilty, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office for the Central District of California.A third defendant — 59-year-old Juanita Antenor, formerly of Pasadena — remains at large and is believed to be in the Philippines, prosecutors said.Antenor owned the Pasadena hospice company Arcadia Hospice Provider Inc.
The companies allegedly billed Medicare and Medi-Cal for hospice services for patients who were not terminally ill, according to court documents, and in some cases submitted bills for services that weren’t provided.Nowhere has the hospice industry’s growth been more explosive, and its harmful side effects more evident, than in Los Angeles County.
According to the indictment, Contreras was on probation imposed by the Medical Board of California while he was part of the scheme. He is accused of providing fraudulent certifications for some patients, including some he claimed to have examined but never actually saw, according to the indictment. Antenor paid illegal kickbacks to marketers, including Black, for patients referred to the two hospice companies, prosecutors allege.
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