Former Medical Doctor and His Business Partner Sentenced to Nearly Three Years in Prison for $7.1 Million Medicare Health Care Fraud Scheme

LAS VEGAS, Nevada, April 18 -- The U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada, Nicholas A. Trutanich, issued the following news release:

A former medical doctor and his business partner were sentenced Tuesday to 33 months in prison for their individual roles in a $7.1 million Medicare health care fraud scheme that occurred at three Las Vegas hospice and home healthcare agencies, announced U.S. Attorney Nicholas A. Trutanich for the District of Nevada.

Camilo Q. Primero, 76, of San Dimas, California, and Aurora S. Beltran, 63, of Glendora, California, each pleaded guilty conspiracy to commit health care fraud and money laundering. In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge Andrew P. Gordon sentenced each defendant to three years of supervised release and ordered them to pay a criminal forfeiture money judgment of $2,492,627. The defendants agreed to make full restitution in the amount of $2,492,627 to the United States.

From about January 2012 to about July 2017, Primero, a former medical doctor and owner of Angel Eye Hospice, Vision Home Health Care, and Advent Hospice, all in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Beltran, Primero's business partner, operated a scheme to fraudulently obtain $7.1 million from the Medicare program. They filed false enrollment documents with Medicare to enable Primero to operate hospice and home care agencies through nominees despite his prior exclusion from all federal health care programs. Furthermore, they submitted fraudulent hospice care claims for people who were not terminally ill and did not require hospice care.

Primero and Beltran were previously convicted in California state court for defrauding that state's insurance system in relation to another business named Beltran House, a residential care facility for disabled adults.

The case was investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service, Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG), with assistance from IRS-Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Burns prosecuted the case.

You can report suspected Medicare fraud by calling HHS-OIG at 1-800-HHS-TIPS (1-800-447-8477) or online at https://forms.oig.hhs.gov/hotlineoperations/report-fraud-form.aspx.