Janae Nicole Harper, 34, of Kalispell, Mont., has been sentenced for conspiring to defraud Medicare. The licensed nurse practitioner worked in multiple states including Montana, Missouri, Nevada, South Carolina, and Wyoming. She was enrolled as a medical provider with Medicare. (Can you guess how she used her position to steal from Medicare?)
Between November 2017 and July 2019, Harper worked for multiple staffing and telemedicine companies. During this time, she received kickbacks to sign 7,673 brace orders. (She should start bracing herself for prison life.)
The brace orders were prepared by telemarketers without medical training or certification. (That’s concerning. Nothing like receiving assistance from people who are not qualified.) The thousands of orders resulted in $8 million in billings to Medicare. (Although the companies only received a cool $4 billion.) Harper personally collected $94,395 for the orders she signed. (That’s an impressive profit margin.)
To complete her scheme, Harper worked with a nurse practitioner, Mark Allen Hill, 54, from Montana. (Although these two held jobs that revolved around patient care, they sure had a lack of care for the law.) He worked in Montana, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Washington. (Together, this fraud duo travelled many miles to carry out their scheme.)
From October 2017 to April 2019, Hill signed 7,097 brace orders. This resulted in $10 million in billings to Medicare. Medicare paid approximately $5 million for those claims and Hill received $124,900 for signed orders. (Perhaps he thought if he kept moving around, he’d never be caught.)
After pleading guilty to healthcare fraud, Hill was sentenced to nine months in prison and Harper was sentenced to one year behind bars. Both nurse practitioners will be on supervised release for three years following the completion of their prison sentences. Additionally, Harper must pay $4 million in restitution and Hill will shell out $5 million for committing Medicare fraud.
Today’s Fraud of the Day comes from an article, “Kalispell Nurse Practitioner Sentenced to 12 Months in Prison for Health Care Fraud,” published by Flathead Beacon on July 30, 2021.
A Kalispell nurse practitioner was sentenced to 12 months in prison for conspiring to defraud Medicare of millions of dollars with another Montana nurse practitioner, who was sentenced to nine months, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Janae Nichole Harper, 34, of Kalispell and Mark Allen Hill, 54, of North Dakota will both be placed on supervised release for three years following their release from prison. Harper was ordered to pay $4 million in restitution, while Hill was ordered to pay $5 million in restitution.
