Today, Barry Nash, who is the sixty-nine year old owner of a Halfway house in Broward County Florida, plead guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud for his part in a Medicare Fraud Kickback Scheme.

Nash’s guilty plea is related to the growing stack of guilty sentences associated with the American Therapeutic Corporation Medicare Fraud scam in Florida.

Nash is scheduled to be sentenced on March 8th, 2012, and faces up to ten years in prison, as well as a fine of up to a quarter of a million dollars.

Nash admitted to receiving kickbacks for funneling patients into a fraudulent mental health shell company operated by American Therapeutic Corporation(ATC) and American Sleep Institute(ASI,) who was related to American Therapeutic Corporation. According to the plea agreement, Nash was responsible for almost a million dollars in Medicare Fraud that was the direct result of patients from his halfway house being sent for treatment at ATC and ASI.

Nash is the most recent in a string of more than 9 individuals convicted of fraud related to ATC. The ATC and ASI fraud involved a large number of doctors, marketers, and even patients in Florida. These individuals received kickbacks for providing Medicare patients to American Therapeutic Corporation, which is related to Medlink Professional Management Group Inc.

Patients were supposed to receive mental health care and treatment, which included a partial hospitalization program(PHP,) but were typically ineligible or did not receive qualifying treatment. In all, the ATC and ASI fraud is believed to have been responsible for over $200 Million dollars in Medicare Fraud.

This prosecution is related to the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, which was formed five years ago to help fight Medicare Fraud. To date, the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team, also known as HEAT, and the Medicare Fraud Strike Force has helped prosecute over 1000 defendants, who are allegedly responsible for close to $3 Billion in Medicare Fraud.