|
Former nurse pleads guilty to 'Robin Hood'
house calls A former Massachusetts home health nurse pleaded guilty
on June 8 to defrauding Medicare of less than $2,000 in order, according
to her attorney, to pay for extra visits to low-income seniors whom the
nurse felt really needed looking after. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston charged Maryann Abcunas,
a former licensed practical nurse, with one felony count of health care
fraud in federal court on May 24. According to the charges, Abcunas, 40,
submitted fraudulent daily activity records for 35 visits she did not
make from about April to November 1998 to her employer, Commonwealth Nursing
Services and Home Care Inc., a home health agency in Lowell, Mass. Medicare
reimbursed Commonwealth $54.08 for each fraudulent claim, and Abcunas
in turn was paid $25 to $28 for each of the visits in question. But Abcunas was in fact visiting her patients, according
to her attorney, Eugene McCann, Manzi & McCann, Lawrence, Mass. The
problem was that she wasn't visiting the patients she was billing Medicare
for. "She was providing services for people who she felt
really needed it and billed those services to people who she felt didn't
need it," McCann said. "She was a very conscientious nurse.
But one of the people who was billed against raised hell about it. It
snowballed into an absolute disaster." Abcunas is scheduled for sentencing on Sept. 20 and faces
a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. However,
Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Katzmann said that a joint plea agreement
recommended that Abcunas serve no more than a year of probation and 300
hours of community service, while paying full restitution and a small
fine to be determined by the court. "This case demonstrates how a complaint from a Medicare
beneficiary will be taken seriously and may ultimately result in the investigation
and prosecution of wrongdoing," Katzmann said. The Justice Dept. did not accuse Commonwealth of any wrongdoing and said Commonwealth was unaware of Abcunas's misconduct. ©2000 UCG. |