Yet another former executive at City of Angels Medical Center in Los Angeles has pleaded guilty in the case involving homeless people being recruited for unnecessary medical treatment. Dante Nicholson, a former vice president with the hospital, pleaded guilty to paying the recruiters who brought the homeless people into the facility for treatment between 2004 and 2007. City of Angels then charged Medicare and Medi-Cal for the services they provided.
In all the scam netted the hospital $4.1 million. Former chief executive, Dr. Rudra Sabaratnam, pleaded guilty in December in the case, as did recruiter Estill Mitts, who was paid $500,000 to find the homeless people used in the scam; the homeless people, found on Skid Row, were paid $100 or less.
Nicholson was indicted in January along with former hospital co-owner Robert Bourseau, who is still awaiting trial. Each initially were charged with 13 counts. Nicholson faces up to 10 years in prison, and agreed to pay back more than $4.1 million in restitution to the federal government.
For more:
- here's the Associated Press article