This week, Natalie Evans, who is the fifty year old owner of a halfway houses located in Fort Lauderdale Florida, was sentenced to 28 months in prison after pleading guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. She was also ordered to pay a fine of around $250,000 and will serve 3 years of probation after release. She is the most recent in a string of convictions against those involved with the American Therapeutic Corporation(ATC) Medicare kickback scheme.
Evans is listed as the President of Vision of Hope Recovery, Inc, which was established in 2008 and is listed as a non-profit corporation in Florida. Together with the Vice President, Harvey Dixon, Evans ran five halfway houses in the Fort Lauderdale area. Most of Evans patients were recovering drug and substance abuse addicts.
According to her plea deal, Evans admitted to providing Medicare patients to American Therapeutic Corporation and American Sleep Institute(ASI), for a mental health treatment called a partial hospitalization program, or PHP. In return for providing Medicare recipients, Evans received kickbacks for each day the patient received treatment.
As per court records, Evans admitted that the patients did not need this type of treatment and that she was aware that ATC and ASI routinely billed Medicare for fraudulent treatments. She admitted to being responsible for over a half-million in fraudulent Medicare billings.
The investigation into American Therapeutic Corporation(ATC) and American Sleep Institute(ASI,) which are owned by Medlink Professional Management Group Inc, is ongoing. It is presumed to be one of the biggest Medicare fraud cases to date, responsible for over $200 million in fraudulent Medicare Billing and involving a number of owners, operators, and patient recruiters in the Florida area.