A federal jury convicted a Texas husband and wife for a $1 million Medicare fraud scheme, including violations of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Lindell King, 52, and Ynedra Diggs, 44, both of Missouri City, were patient recruiters who owned and operated group homes in which Medicare beneficiaries lived. In exchange for sending their group home residents to Behavioral Medicine of Houston (BMH), a community mental health center that purported to provide partial hospitalization services, BMH paid Diggs, King, and other patient recruiters kickbacks in cash and by check, often concealed as payment for “transportation” or other sham services. Over the course of the conspiracy, BMH billed approximately $1 million to Medicare based on kickbacks paid to Diggs and King. Both Diggs and King were convicted of a conspiracy to defraud the United States and to pay and receive healthcare kickbacks, and several substantive violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute.
