A former owner of a home visiting physician company in suburban Chicago, who was previously convicted of theft from the Medicare program, has been ordered by a federal judge to pay more than $25 million in damages and penalties as the result of more than 4,000 violations of the False Claims Act. Ajibola Ayeni, 63, of Flossmoor, formerly operated Docs at the Door, PC, a home visiting physician company in Matteson, Illinois. In 2017, the government intervened in a sealed whistleblower lawsuit that had been brought against him and other defendants in 2013. The United States filed its own complaint-in-intervention against Ayeni and his wife, Joy H. Turner-Ayeni, 61, of Flossmoor, and their companies, including Docs at the Door, alleging that they had violated the federal False Claims Act by knowingly submitting claims for Medicare payments for services not rendered, services that were not medically necessary, and services that were “upcoded” to a higher level reimbursement than was appropriate or provided. The allegations included that Ayeni and Docs at the Door had submitted thousands of claims for a Medicare service called care plan oversight, which they knew had not been provided.
Also in 2017, Ayeni was charged in a related criminal case alleging care plan oversight fraud. That case resolved in a guilty plea on August 22, 2019, when Ayeni pleaded guilty to one count of theft or embezzlement in connection with a healthcare benefit program. In his plea, Ayeni specifically admitted that the Medicare program paid Docs at the Door approximately $523,600 from 2011 through June 2015 as the result of 4,367 false claims for the care plan oversight service that he, as the owner and authorized official of the business, knowingly caused to be submitted although he knew that care plan oversight service had not been rendered. He also admitted that he instructed others to create false documentation to support those false claims for care plan oversight.
