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Des Plaines couple charged with paying kickbacks to defraud Medicare

A Des Plaines wife and husband face federal charges of paying kickbacks to employees and a marketer in exchange for referrals of Medicare patients to the couple's Chicago home health care company, prosecutors said Thursday.

Estrellita Duquilla, 58, is charged with five counts of paying kickbacks to induce referrals of Medicare beneficiaries, while her husband Miguel Duquilla, 60, is charged with two counts of the same crime.

Both also face charges of conspiracy to pay and receive health care kickbacks, conspiracy to commit health care fraud, and 10 counts of Medicare fraud.

The owners couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

It was the second federal healthcare insurance fraud indictment in the Northwest suburbs in the last week.

In a federal indictment unsealed Thursday, the U.S. attorneys office contends employees of the couple's HCN Home Healthcare Inc. altered nursing reports and patient files to falsely create the appearance that its patients qualified for in-home treatment.

Many of the beneficiaries didn't qualify for home-health services, and in several instances never needed or received the care, according to a news release.

In some cases, the employees and marketer paid cash to the patients in exchange for allowing their information to be used in paperwork submitted to Medicare, prosecutors said.

As a result, Medicare made overpayments to the company in excess of $6 million in a scheme that spanned from 2008 to 2012, according to the indictment.

Also charged in the conspiracy were four employees: Zenaida Dimailig, 78, of Bensenville; Grace Mendez, 59, of Des Plaines; Daniel Fajardo, 45, of Chicago; and Sherrod Harris, 49, of Chicago. All were charged with conspiracy to pay and receive health care kickbacks, among other charges.

In addition to the employees, Roberto Jonson, 58, of Bensenville, an outside marketer who is married to Dimailig, faces conspiracy charges.

Mendez and Harris were arraigned in federal court Thursday.

The health care fraud conspiracy and Medicare fraud counts carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and $250,000 fine, while the kickback and kickback conspiracy counts carry a sentence of up to five years and a $250,000 fine.

The indictment comes a week after federal prosecutors returned a separate indictment against three family members who operate a chiropractic practice in Wheeling on charges of participating in a $10.8 million fraud scheme. Vladimir Gordin Jr. of Northbrook, Vladimir Gordin Sr. of Riverwoods and Alexsander Gordin of Northbrook all were charged with billing insurance companies for medically unnecessary treatments and treatments never performed.

Wheeling chiropractic group operators indicted in $10.8 million fraud

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