A pair of Brooklyn-based companies ripped off the state’s controversial Medicaid homecare program to the tune of $68 million, federal prosecutors alleged this week.
The eight accused scammers — together with the homeowners of the 2 grownup day care services — allegedly mounted the yearslong kickback and bribery scheme to defraud the state program, in line with an indictment unsealed Wednesday.
The allegedly fraud-ridden Shopper Directed Private Help Program (CDPAP) permits New Yorkers with minimal expertise to receives a commission to deal with family members at residence. Lots of of “intermediary” corporations primarily work as payroll brokers between the caregivers and Medicaid, with minimal oversight.
Zakia Khan and Ahsan Ijaz, the homeowners of Completely happy Household Social Grownup Day Care and Household Social Grownup Day Care, additionally ran one such fiscal middleman, Accountable Care Staffing, which was allegedly used to course of funds for bogus providers, in line with the scheme.
5 different individuals – Elaine Antao, Omneah Hamdi, and Manal Wasef, Ansir Abassi and Amran Hashmi– have been additionally charged for his or her involvement scheme.
The entire defendants face expenses of fraud and conspiring to gather kickbacks. Khan additionally faces further cash laundering expenses.
Every could possibly be sentenced to a long time in jail, if convicted.
“Social grownup day care and residential well being providers are supposed to assist seniors, however as alleged, the defendants allegedly turned their companies right into a brazen money seize of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from the Medicaid program,” Brooklyn US Lawyer Breon Peace mentioned within the assertion.
“My Workplace is dedicated to investigating and prosecuting those that plunder taxpayer-funded, federal well being care packages {dollars} whereas purporting to supply well being care providers.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul has pushed for adjustments to the CDPAP to attempt to reign in uncontrolled spending in addition to waste, fraud and abuse in this system. Albany and Washington paid round $9 billion to assist this system in 2023.
Hochul’s plan entails reducing out the almost 300 middlemen corporations — just like the one the feds say was used within the alleged scheme — and consolidate the trade beneath one firm handpicked by the state.
The Publish was first to report that considered one of New York’s strongest unions, 1199 SEIU, has been working behind the scenes to make sure the chosen agency would stay impartial to unionizing the almost 250,000 residence well being aides beneath this system and would advocate for rising their pay. Consultants say such a pay enhance might enhance prices beneath this system.
The middlemen corporations labored closely in the previous couple of months to attempt to derail the contract from being awarded, together with a PR blitz and a number of other ongoing authorized battles.
“It is a prime instance of why we labored with the Legislature to enact commonsense CDPAP reforms that can strengthen this system and guarantee taxpayer cash goes to the house care customers and caregivers who want it – to not unscrupulous middlemen,” a Hochul spokesperson wrote in a press release.
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