Federal prosecutors have obtained another guilty verdict involving a multi-million-dollar Medicare fraud scheme orchestrated by a former Bustleton-based private ambulance company.
Dialysis patient Keisha Regusters, 38, of Philadelphia, pleaded guilty last Thursday to a fraud scheme involving kickbacks from the ambulance company. U.S. District Court Judge William H. Yohn Jr. scheduled a sentencing hearing for Aug. 11, when Regusters will face a potential six to 12 months in prison based on the advisory sentencing guidelines, as well as up to three years of supervised release, restitution, a fine of up to $500,000 and a $200 special assessment.
Regusters began using Brotherly Love for transport to and from her dialysis appointments in October 2010, although she could walk and be safely transported by other means. Therefore, Regusters was ineligible for Medicare coverage for ambulance transport.
But the operator of the ambulance company, Feda Kuran, billed Medicare for services provided to Regusters, as if ambulance transport was medically necessary. Regusters accepted monthly kickbacks from Brotherly Love to induce her to continue to ride with the company.
Medicare paid about $52,000 in inappropriate bills to Brotherly Love on behalf of Regusters and more than $2 million to the company on behalf of numerous other clients. Kuran was separately convicted of fraud and sentenced to 64 months in prison. ••
