NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – A Virginia Beach businessman is facing a fraud charge in federal court. He’s accused in a billing scheme where he allegedly made false claims to Medicare and TRICARE for the ambulance service he operated.
In a federal court document outlining criminal information for health care fraud, Houman Mike Motii, who started Swift Medical Transport, LLC, is accused of a “fraudulent billing scheme…to obtain health care benefit payments from Medicare and TRICARE.”
A WAVY News crew found Motii sitting in his car on a cell phone in front of his house Wednesday and asked him about the fraud charge, but he did not want to discuss it.
10 On Your Side did a story with Motii in 2016. At the time, he said he couldn’t afford to make free runs for Medicare patients without knowing if Medicare was going to pay for it. He said then, “We’ve had maybe 10-12 dialysis patients, and we’ve had to let go of about four or five because of the new Medicare policy.”
The criminal information claims during that same time, between April 2015 and April 2017, Motii was committing fraud by not having proper staffing on the ambulances, required by law.
Medicare requires all Basic Life Support (BLS) ambulances be staffed with at least two qualified staff members.
“The defendant knew, the ambulance transports did not have a licensed operator and/or attendant-in-charge,” writes Elizabeth Yusi Assistant United States Attorney.
Yusi’s criminal information states Motii orchestrated a fraudulent billing scheme where “the defendant prepared and submitted, and caused to be prepared and submitted to Medicare and TRICARE numerous false and fraudulent claims… $62,854.53 to which he was not entitled.”
The Federal Court docket shows Motii will enter a guilty plea in federal court on May 23.
