Federal trial begins for ex-Rockwall doc accused of massive home health care fraud Kevin Krause
W. Rick Copeland of the Texas attorney general’s office outlined the machinations of Jacques Roy’s home health care fraud in 2012 after the Rockwall physician was indicted.
Dr. Jacques Roy was disgraced by the suspension of his medical license and had a tough time finding steady work as a physician, so he crafted a plan, prosecutors said.
Roy, 58, decided to orchestrate a massive Medicare fraud scheme, make as much money as fast as possible and then disappear.
The former Rockwall physician’s federal trial began this week in federal court in Dallas. He is accused of recruiting fake patients — including some of Dallas’ homeless — to submit $375 million worth of bogus home health care services.
Prosecutors called it the largest home health fraud ever orchestrated by a single doctor. Roy has since lost his license. He faces life in prison if convicted.
Jacques Roy
Six others were also charged in 2012 with bilking Medicare in the indictment. Three of them have pleaded guilty for their roles in the scheme and are expected to testify against Roy.
Roy’s Medistat office in DeSoto handled more home health care visits to patients from January 2006 to November 2011 than any physician’s office in the country, federal authorities said.
Prosecutors said they intend to call about 70 witnesses and introduce about 500 exhibits. The trial is expected to last at least a month.
Roy has been in federal custody since his 2012 arrest. A judge denied his request for bond after prosecutors presented evidence that Roy had been hiding money offshore under a fake identity and was planning to flee.
When agents searched his home in 2011, they found a book titled, Hide You’re A$$ET$ and Disappear, A Step-by-Step Guide to Vanishing Without a Trace as well as other publications about hiding money in offshore bank accounts. Agents also found two different fake identities with Roy’s photo along with passport documents from Canada where he was born.
Roy, who has U.S. and Canadian citizenship, had an “extensively planned exit strategy,” prosecutors said in a filing.
Steady stream of referrals
Medistat was an association of health care providers that mostly provided home health certifications and conducted home visits for patients needing care.
Hundreds of patient care visits were logged each day by more than 500 home health care agencies routing their patients to Roy, who billed Medicare and the state’s Medicaid program for the bogus services, according to the indictment.
Roy and his cohorts wooed about 11,000 Medicare beneficiaries with promises of cash, food stamps and groceries, prosecutors said.
“The essence of the conspiracy charged in the indictment is that Dr. Roy was the spout from which Medicare money flowed,” Assistant U.S. Attorney P.J. Meitl said in a court filing. “If a home health care agency brought him beneficiaries, he would authorize services.”
Nurses falsified medical documents to make it seem patients qualified for home health care services, prosecutors said. To qualify, patients must be unable to leave their homes.
Yet some of Roy’s “patients” were found working on their cars when investigators approached them, according to prosecutors.
When his ability to bill Medicare was suspended in June 2011 due to suspected fraud, Roy used another company, Medcare HouseCalls, to continue billing for bogus services, the government said.
Three North Texas home health agencies involved in the conspiracy were Apple of Your Eye Healthcare Services Inc., Ultimate Care Home Health Services Inc., and Charry Home Care Services Inc.
Wilbert Veasey Jr., owner of Apple of Your Eye, went door to door in search of Medicare beneficiaries to sign up, authorities said.
He was caught “red handed” when he tried to recruit someone whose relative worked for the government, records show.
Charity Eleda, a nurse and co-owner of Charry Home Care, had a different source of “patients,” authorities said.
She paid recruiters $50 to visit The Bridge homeless shelter in Dallas and promise free meals to get recruits, records show.
Eleda continued to try to recruit the shelter’s homeless even after being kicked out, records show. She had to be “chased from the premises on multiple occasions,” court documents said.
Roy visited the Bridge to “treat” patients at a picnic table, court records show.
Veasey, Eleda and Cynthia Stiger, co-owner of Apple of Your Eye, are being tried with Roy.
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