Lake Zurich man sentenced to year in prison for Medicare fraud

A Lake Zurich man who operated a home health care company was sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to defrauding Medicare.

Henry Smilie, 61, billed Medicare for nearly $2 million in false claims from 2012 to 2014, federal prosecutors said.

At least $1.2 million of those claims were paid to Smilie's former company, Home Physician Services LLC, according to court records.

"The false claims pertained to 'care plan oversight' services that were either not rendered or involved treatment that was far less intricate than portrayed in the claims submitted by Smilie's company to Medicare," prosecutors said Tuesday after the sentence was handed down.

Smilie also was ordered to repay Medicare the $1.2 million his company received from the fake claims.