A Houston-area hospital administrator was sentenced to 10 years in prison for defrauding Medicare of $16 million.
Starsky Bomer was also ordered to pay nearly $6.3 million in restitution for his role in the fraud scheme. Bomer and the chief financial officers and chief operating officers of Atrium Medical Center and Pristine Healthcare bribed group home owners and patient recruiters to send Medicare beneficiaries to the hospitals.
The patients received partial-hospitalization program services, which is intensive outpatient treatment for severe mental illness, even though many of them didn't need the care and were never legitimately treated. Bomer disguised bribes and kickbacks as salary and transportation payments to group home owners.
In October, Bomer was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to receive healthcare kickbacks, two counts of violating the anti-kickback statute and one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud from a previous indictment.