Hospice owner faces prison for Medicare fraud

An Oklahoma hospice provider lied about the amount of services it had provided and made patients appear sicker than they actually were as part of a scheme to defraud Medicare for three years.

Prairie View Hospice in Oklahoma City hid the true conditions of its patients in an attempt to “pass” a Medicare audit and siphon more money from the federal program, the Justice Department said.

The hospice company forged Medicare claims that showed its nurses had visited their terminally ill patients when, in fact, they had not.

To continue receiving Medicare reimbursements for hospice services, Prairie View faked notes from nurses that exaggerated the illnesses of their patients, according to the Justice Department.

Paula Kluding, Prairie View’s owner, also submitted falsified patient files to a Medicare subcontractor tasked with auditing the company.

Prairie View overbilled Medicare through the scheme from July 2010 to July 2013, the Justice Department said.

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