Gavel and stethoscope on blue background.
A Lancaster woman was found guilty Friday of receiving more than $330,000 in illegal kickbacks for patient referrals to two hospice companies in a fraud scheme that bilked Medicare out of more than $3.2 million through claims for medically unnecessary services.
Callie Jean Black, 66, was convicted at the conclusion of a four-day bench trial in Los Angeles federal court of four counts of soliciting and receiving remunerations for patient referrals, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
U.S. District Judge André Birotte Jr. scheduled sentencing for July 25.
Dr. Victor Contreras, 69, a Ventura County physician who worked for the two Pasadena hospices, pleaded guilty last year to one count of health care fraud and was sentenced in December 2024 to two years behind bars and ordered to pay $3.28 million in restitution.
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The lead defendant in the case, former Pasadena resident Juanita Antenor, 62, remains at large and is believed to be in the Philippines, prosecutors said.
According to the 14-count indictment, from July 2016 to February 2019, Contreras and Antenor schemed to defraud Medicare by submitting nearly $4 million in false and fraudulent claims for hospice services submitted by Arcadia Hospice Provider Inc. and Saint Mariam Hospice Inc. Antenor controlled both companies.
Medicare only covers hospice services for patients who are terminally ill, meaning that they have a life expectancy of six months or less if their illness ran its normal course.
Contreras admitted having falsely stated on claims forms that patients had terminal illnesses to make them eligible for hospice services covered by Medicare, typically adopting diagnoses provided to him by hospice employees whether or not they were true.
Contreras did so even though he was not the patients' primary care physician and had not spoken to those primary care physicians about the patients' conditions. Medicare paid on the claims supported by Contreras' false evaluations and certifications and recertifications of patients.
Prosecutors say Antenor paid Black and other so-called marketers illegal kickbacks for referred to the two hospice companies.
