NEWS RELEASE
UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
WESTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA
Julia C. Dudley United States Attorney Brian McGinn Public Affairs Specialist |
BB&T Building 310 1st Street, S.W., Room 906 Roanoke, Virginia 24011 (540) 857-2974 FAX (540) 857-2179 |
April 28, 2009
OWNER OF AMBULANCE COMPANY SENTENCED TO 51 MONTHS IMPRISONMENT AND ORDERED TO PAY $387,111.31
IN RESTITUTION FOR HEALTH CARE FRAUD
United States Attorney Julia C. Dudley announced today that Darryl Jack Kiser, age 44, of Lebanon, Virginia, was sentenced yesterday to 51 months imprisonment by Chief United States District Judge James P. Jones. Kiser had previously pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud, and one count of Conspiracy to Commit Health Care Fraud.
According to evidence presented at an earlier hearing by Assistant United States Attorney Zachary Lee, Darryl Jack Kiser owned and operated Angel Care Ambulance Service in Abingdon, Virginia between December 2004 and September 2007. Angel Care Ambulance Service, a Medicare provider, provided transportation services to dialysis patients that qualified for Medicare coverage.
During the Spring of 2007, information was provided to the Virginia Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General that Angel Care Ambulance Service was fraudulently billing Medicare for transporting dialysis patients. The investigation by these agencies revealed that these patients did not fit Medicare guidelines and that Angel Care Ambulance Service was submitting false documentation regarding these transports in order to secure payment from Medicare and a private insurance company.
Pursuant to Medicare and the private insurance company’s guidelines, payment was only authorized for the ambulance transport of patients that were confined to a stretcher. The investigation determined that Angel Care Ambulance Service was transporting three patients who could walk unassisted and one patient that was confined to a wheelchair. Many times these patients would ride in the front passenger seat of the ambulance, instead of on a stretcher. To receive payment, Angel Care Ambulance Service would submit fraudulent “trip sheets” to a billing agency that described the patient being confined to a stretcher and unable to walk. The total amount of fraudulent billing to both Medicare and the private insurance company was determined to be $1,396,718.45, with a total of $387,111.31 actually being paid to Angel Care Ambulance Service.
The investigation of this case was conducted by the Virginia Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General, Virginia State Police, and the United States Marshals Service. Assistant United States Attorney Zachary T. Lee of the United States Attorney’s Office in Abingdon, and Michelle Brooks, Special Assistant United States Attorney and Assistant Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia, prosecuted the case.