Two former hospice facility owners were arrested in Los Angeles for their alleged roles in a kickback and health care fraud scheme, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release.
Oganes Doganyan, 49, of Northridge, and Kristine Arutyunyan, 38, of Glendale, were charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud, conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks, and paying kickbacks.
They allegedly paid illegal kickbacks for the referral of Medicare beneficiary information that could be used to bill for supposed hospice services, according to court documents.
The defendants also allegedly caused fake and fraudulent claims to be billed to Medicare for hospice services that were medically unnecessary, not eligible for reimbursement and were not actually provided. That included services supposedly provided to Medicare beneficiaries who did not exist.
If convicted, Doganyan and Arutyunyan each face a maximum penalty of 35 years in prison. They were scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in downtown L.A. Thursday.
The FBI as well as the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services investigated the case.