Former employees sue health care fraud suspects
BROWNSVILLE -- Two home health care companies that closed after a federal grand jury indicted executives at the businesses on multiple charges of defrauding Medicare out of $150 million are now being sued by nine employees alleging that they were fired without notice and not paid.
The Waco-based employees filed the lawsuit on Dec. 14 in Brownsville alleging BRM Home Health and Merida Health Care violated the Wages and Fair Labor Standards Act and the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which are laws protecting employees facing mass layoffs and establishing minimum wage and overtime pay.
The litigation also names Henry McInnis, 47, and Jose Garza, 40, both of Harlingen, both of whom helped control and manage Merida Health Care Group, a collection of health care entities owned by Rodney Mesquias, 47, of San Antonio, who is also named in the lawsuit. The last defendant is Francisco Pena, 82, of Laredo, a licensed physician, who is also the outgoing mayor of Rio Bravo, Texas, who was medical director for the Merida Group's affiliates, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas.
All of those men, in addition to Jesus Virlar-Cadena, are charged in a 12-count indictment accusing them of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, aiding and abetting, obstruction of justice and conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks in a scheme that spanned a wide area in South Texas, including Brownsville, Harlingen, Corpus Christi, Laredo and San Antonio.
Read more: https://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/local/former-employees-sue-health-care-fraud-suspects/article_a9aff446-0247-11e9-818e-83350124099a.html