Hughes and others are accused of defrauding the veterans program, Medicare and Tricare by submitting claims for home healthcare services not actually provided and to receive payments from Medicare based on false invoices, U.S. Attorney Leif Olson said in a news release.<\/p>\n
According to the indictment, Hughes and Synergy submitted claims for home healthcare services not actually provided to older and infirm veterans, including claims for services purportedly provided to one veteran who died. The veteran died June 29, 2024, but on July 11, 2024, Synergy submitted two fraudulent claims for care provided July 1 \u2014 two days after his death.<\/p>\n
Another example, included in the indictment, was a veteran suffering from Alzheimer\u2019s who required respite care. Fraudulent claims were allegedly submitted for 24 hours of home health aide care and two hours of registered nurse care. Synergy submitted such false claims at least 10 times, but on Aug. 14, 2024, Hughes told the health aide caring for the veteran to provide six hours of care per visit.<\/p>\n
The records documenting the aide\u2019s actual care were for four and six hours of care per visit, the indictment stated.<\/p>\n
The indictment also includes examples of payments Hughes submitted for purported healthcare for the veteran who died and the veteran who had Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyndra Lundquist is prosecuting this case.<\/p>\n
Another Iowan<\/p>\n
Another Iowa provider included in the national law enforcement operation is Eugene J. Cherny, owner of Heartland Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery in Des Moines, who was sued for damages and civil penalties stemming from false pricing information it sent to Medicare.<\/p>\n
According to the complaint, Heartland and Cherny sent Medicare false invoices for skin substitute products used to treat Medicare patients. Medicare used the invoices to set the reimbursement that Heartland received.<\/p>\n
Medicare and Tricare paid Cherny more than $2 million based on the false information provided, the complaint stated. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brandon J. Gray and Brian J. Keogh, of the Northern District of Iowa, and Andy Kahal, of the Southern District of Iowa, are prosecuting the case.<\/p>\n
The national operation resulted in charges against 455 defendants, including 90 doctors and other licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in healthcare fraud and opioid abuse schemes involving more than $6.5 billion in false claims and significant patient harm, including death.<\/p>\n
U.S. Attorney Olson said the operation represented a new era in federal, state and international cooperation to combat healthcare fraud. Cases were filed in 56 federal districts, 45 states and territories, with 50 state Medicaid Fraud Control Units participating, the most in the department\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/69d5a8f872e6e.image.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
U.S. Attorney Leif Olson<\/p>\n
Jim Slosiarek\/The Gazette<\/p>\n
In international cooperation over the two-week operation, those returned to the U.S. included one defendant in Cyprus in connection with a $3.7 billion scheme; two defendants in Estonia in connection with a previously charged $10.6 billion scheme; and in the Philippines, one of FBI\u2019s Most Wanted Fraudsters in connection with a previously charged $1.2 billion telemedicine fraud scheme.<\/p>\n
Olson said the law enforcement action involved \u201ccutting-edge use of data analytics to target the worst actors and the seizure of more than $182 million in cash, luxury vehicles, jewelry, and other assets.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Cedar Rapids man, who owns a healthcare company that provided home healthcare to veterans, is accused of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[15825,10997,97,252,2601,253],"class_list":["post-728028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-cedar-rapids","tag-federal-court","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-health-care-industry","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}