James T. Jacks
Acting United States Attorney
Northern District of Texas

TWO MEN PLEAD GUILTY IN HEALTH CARE CASE
INVOLVING NURSING HOMES IN PAMPA AND FORT WORTH, TEXAS

AMARILLO, Texas — Two men have pled guilty to felony charges related to their embezzlement of approximately $42,000 from Medicaid, private insurance carriers, and a corporation that operated nursing homes in Texas, announced acting U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas.

Today, Terry Dean West, 39, pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Mary Lou Robinson to making false statements related to healthcare matters, and aiding and abetting. Earlier this week, his co-defendant, Elizandro Valdez Arana, a/k/a “Brian Rodriguez,” 34, pled guilty to the same offense. West was arrested on December 12, 2008, in Midland, Texas, and Arana was arrested the following week in Fort Worth, Texas. Both defendants are on bond. They each face a maximum statutory sentence of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and restitution when they are sentenced by Judge Robinson on May 28, 2009.

From January 2006 until May 8, 2006, Terry West devised a scheme to embezzle money from Medicaid, private insurance carriers, and Sava Senior Care Corporation, a Georgia-based corporation that operated 10 nursing homes in Texas. West worked as a financial analyst for Sava out of the Sava-owned Pampa Nursing Center (PNC) in Pampa, Texas, and Arlington Heights Health and Rehabilitation Center (AHHRC) in Fort Worth, Texas.

Part of West’s duties included overseeing the business managers of PNC and AHHRC and ensuring that they collected the correct payments from the residents, Medicaid, and/or private insurance carriers. If over-collections occurred, West was required to refund the excess amounts to Medicaid, the insurance carrier, or the resident.

West hired co-defendant Elizandro Valdez Arana as a contract employee for Sava so that he could assist him in the scheme. Arana’s role was to provide his name, Elizanandro Arana, and an alias, Brian Rodriguez, to use to cash checks containing the embezzled funds.

West admitted altering patient billing records to show a credit balance when there were no credit balances and altering patient records to change the names and addresses of the responsible parties to whom credit balance refunds should be mailed. West would issue refund checks drawn on Sava’s account and made payable to these newly created “responsible parties.” He would also alter patient records, showing fictitious credit balances to correspond with the fraudulent checks. The fraudulent checks would be mailed to the post office boxes they had rented. They would then retrieve the checks, cash them, and convert the money to their own use.

The total amount embezzled in this scheme was $42,005.76. There were two attempted embezzlements totaling $12,014.00; however, they failed because the crime was discovered and Sava issued a stop payment order.

Acting U.S. Attorney Jacks praised the excellent investigative work of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Unit.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Vicki Lamberson of the Amarillo, Texas, U.S. Attorney’s Office.

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