U.S. v. George

Record contained sufficient evidence to support defendant’s convictions for receiving kickbacks under Anti-Kickback Statute and for conspiracy to offer kickbacks, arising out of scheme in which defendant received $500 from third-party for each Medicare patient that defendant referred to third-party who was ultimately accepted into third-party’s home health care services program. Record showed that defendant was aware that said referrals were illegal at time they were given to defendant, where defendant had admitted to same when she was arrested by police. Ct. rejected defendant’s contention that govt. had failed to establish conspiracy among herself and members of third-party’s organization, where defendant had written agreement with third-party to make such referrals as independent contractor, and where defendant’s ability to obtain referral fee was dependent on over-all success of scheme. Ct. further rejected defendant’s claim that: (1) Anti-Kickback Statute applied only to relevant-decision-makers who made decisions with respect to acceptance of patients into third-party’s home health care program; and (2) she qualified for safe-harbor provisions of Anti-Kickback Statute either as individual supplying patients to qualifying home health care center or as “employee” of entity providing services for Medicare patients.