Phila. EMT charged with healthcare fraud for role in scheme to defraud federal gov’t.

Federal prosecutors in Philadelphia have charged a 35-year-old emergency

medical technician with healthcare fraud for his alleged involvement in a scheme to defraud Medicare and Medicaid.

Neel Jackson, of Philadelphia, was also charged with aiding and abetting healthcare fraud for his supposed part in a scheme in which patients who were otherwise able to walk were transported via ambulance so the government could be billed for the services.

Feda Kuran, who along with an unidentified co-conspirator founded Brotherly Love Ambulance Inc. in the summer of 2010, was previously charged with bilking Medicare out of $2 million in the healthcare fraud scheme.

Kuran had been accused of billing Medicare for ambulance services that were not medically necessary, for services that were not actually provided, and for services that were induced by illegal kickbacks, the Pennsylvania Record reported last spring.

Kuran pleaded guilty in July.

This week, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania charged Jackson, the EMT, for his alleged role in the healthcare fraud scheme.

According to the criminal information against him, Jackson and others completed paperwork, including “run sheets,” representing that patients required ambulance services when he and the others knew they were fully capable of walking on their own or of being transported by public mass transit or para-transit van.

It is also alleged that Jackson gave envelopes he believed to contain cash or other payments to “induce” patients to allow the ambulance company to transport them and/or convince them to remain with Brotherly Love Ambulance.

It is also alleged that Jackson received payments for referring patients to Kuran, the company’s co-founder.

As a result of Jackson’s alleged actions, Medicare paid more than $200,000 in inappropriate bills, according to prosecutors.

It is alleged that as a result of the purported scheme, Medicare paid more than $2 million in inappropriate bills.

Jackson faces a maximum possible sentence of 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine, as well as an order of restitution and forfeiture.