UPDATED 12:52 PM EDT, October 19, 2012
The owner and operator of several Florida halfway houses was sentenced to four years, three months in prison for part of a scheme to defraud the government of $205 million in Medicare payments, according to the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services, the latest conviction from an increased crackdown by the government's Medicare Fraud Strike Force.
Court documents say Hassan Collins, 41, referred people for partial hospitalization programs run by American Therapeutic Corporation, even though those people weren't qualified. ATC then paid Collins kickbacks for his help in getting patients. In related court cases, ATC and several other individuals have been convicted for their roles in the scheme.
