The marketing director for a shuttered hospice company has reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors over his role in recruiting patients as part of a $60 million health-care fraud scheme.
Slade C. Brown, 49, of Plano has agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health-care fraud. His is the sixth such plea agreement in the criminal investigation into Frisco-based Novus, which operated one of the largest hospice companies in North Texas before it closed in late 2015.
Brown faces up to five years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced.
The 16 defendants in the criminal case are charged with participating in a scheme that put profits over patient care. Allegations also involve illegally dispensing controlled substances, such as morphine or hydromorphone. As part of the scheme, the company was "aggressively medicating patients," which in some cases resulted in death, according to court documents.
Brown headed the company's marketing department, which was tasked with advertising Novus' services to not only potential patients but also doctors and assisted living facilities, documents state. His department was also responsible for recruiting physicians to work as medical directors. Those medical directors were supposed to oversee patient care.
Brown told authorities that Novus paid for certified nursing assistants to work in assisted living homes. In exchange, Novus gained access to their patients.
"This offer was made to all assisted living facilities that Novus worked with," according to Brown's statement to prosecutors.
The scheme involved admitting patients into hospice care even though they weren't eligible for the service, prosecutors have said. Novus also billed Medicare for hospice services that either weren't provided or weren't ordered by a doctor as required, records state.
Medicare requires that hospice patients have a terminal illness with a prognosis of less than six months to live. But many of Novus patients weren't terminally ill. Investigators say Novus patients were enrolled in hospice because Medicare paid more for their care.
The investigation is ongoing. Five other defendants have also reached plea agreements with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas. The remaining 10 defendants are tentatively set to go on trial Jan. 7. In a joint motion filed this month, those defendants are seeking at least six more months to prepare for trial.
