A recipient of Congressman John D. Dingell's (D-Dearborn) Golden Grab Award is scheduled to begin trial today on charges of conspiracy to defraud Medicare by the submission of fraudulent cost reports.

ABC Home Health Services, a company based in Georgia, received the Golden Grab, an award marking excellence in efforts to bilk the taxpayer, at a hearing of the House Commerce Committee Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee on July 19, 1995.

At the hearing, the Subcommittee heard testimony that ABC Home Health Services billed Medicare for expenses for personal airplane trips by the company's owner and family members, emery boards with the company logo, an advertisement in a beauty pageant program, cable TV subscription charges for the owner's mother, golf pro shop charges, utilities on a private beach condominium, liquor, gourmet popcorn, and lease payments for a BMW used by the owner's son while in college, among other charges. .

"For years, the Oversight Subcommittee has attacked waste, fraud and abuse in an intelligent way," Dingell said. "The new majority in the Congress has addressed these problems in a most curious fashion. They voted to slash funding for the very activities of government designed to catch waste, fraud and abuse, and to water down or eliminate the kinds of regulations that protect the taxpayer from unscrupulous health care providers. It is one thing to prevent crooks and scoundrels from scamming the system. It is quite another to contemplate billions of dollars in Medicare cuts, while at the same time making it easier for rogues and rascals to rip off the taxpayer."

On August 24, 1995, the company and four present or former officers were named in an 82 count indictment. The Savannah, Georgia grand jury alleged fraudulent attempts to obtain reimbursement from Medicare for personal airplane trips by the owners, ghost employees, trips to college football games and high school reunions, and other improper expenditures.

Back to the Public Record Home Page