According to plea documents, Mr. Young began recruiting and transporting patients in Sept. 2007 to a clinic called Ritecare. Ritecare was owned and operated by co-conspirators and had locations in Detroit and Livonia, Mich. Mr. Young admitted that he and a co-conspirator paid kickbacks, through funds provided by the clinic owners, to Medicare beneficiaries that he recruited and transported to Ritecare. Typically, the owners of Ritecare would provide Mr. Young $100-$150 per patient he recruited, with Mr. Young retaining $50-$75 of that amount for the referral, according to plea documents.
The patients Mr. Young recruited had to subject themselves to medically unnecessary tests to receive the money, according to plea documents. Per instructions from the owners and operators of Ritecare, Mr. Young admitted that he instructed the patients to claim they had certain symptoms to trigger medically unnecessary tests. Consequently, the patients’ medical records contained false symptoms allowing Ritecare to deceive Medicare as to the legitimacy and medical necessity of the tests it performed.
Mr. Young admitted that he was responsible for recruiting at least 269 patients to Ritecare. Through his recruitment efforts, Mr. Young caused the submission of approximately $940,760 in false or fraudulent billings by Ritecare for the 269 patients he recruited. Medicare paid approximately $533,643 on those claims.
He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. His sentencing has not yet been scheduled. Mr. Young’s guilty plea follows that of another Ritecare recruiter, Hans Lobato.
Read the DOJ’s release on Melvin Young.
