The administrator of a Southern California hospice was sentenced to 30 months in prison for his role in a multimillion-dollar hospice fraud scheme. Antonio Olivera, 80, of Norwalk, was also ordered to pay $2,193,914 in restitution. Olivera pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud in November 2020. Three co-conspirators have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. As part of his guilty plea, Olivera admitted that from 2011 to 2018, while acting as administrator for Mhiramarc Management LLC (Mhiramarc), a hospice located in Downey, California, Olivera and others paid illegal kickbacks to patient recruiters for the referral of hospice beneficiaries to Mhiramarc. Further, when clinical staff at Mhiramarc determined beneficiary referrals did not qualify to receive hospice services, Olivera overruled those determinations and nonetheless caused the beneficiaries to be put on hospice service. Olivera and co-conspirators caused Mhiramarc to submit approximately $28 million in claims to Medicare, which resulted in the company being paid over $17 million. Olivera was personally responsible for $4,769,982 in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare, resulting in Medicare paying Mhiramarc $2,984,914 for medically unnecessary hospice services for beneficiaries, many of whom had been recruited through illegal kickbacks.
