The former owner/operator of a Southland ambulance company was sentenced today to nine years in federal prison for running a $1.5 million Medicare scam.
Yaroslav “Steven” Proshak, 47, of Valley Village, operated ProMed Medical Transportation, a now-defunct Gardena ambulance company that provided non-emergency transportation services to Medicare beneficiaries, many of whom were dialysis patients.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge S. James Otero sentenced co-defendants Emilia Zverev, 58, of Van Nuys, and Sharetta Michelle Wallace, 37, of Inglewood, to three- and two-year prison terms, respectively.
Each defendant was additionally ordered to pay about $805,000 in restitution.
A federal jury in Los Angeles in August convicted Proshak, Zverev and Wallace each of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and five counts of health care fraud.
Zverev was ProMed’s billing manager, and Wallace supervised the company’s emergency medical technicians.
The evidence at trial demonstrated that, between May 2008 and October 2010, the defendants conspired to bill Medicare for ambulance transportation services for individuals they knew did not need such services.
In addition, the defendants instructed EMTs who worked at ProMed to conceal the true medical conditions of patients they were transporting by altering requisite paperwork and creating fraudulent documents to justify the transportation services, according to federal prosecutors.
During the course of the conspiracy, ProMed submitted at least $2.4 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for medically unnecessary transportation services. Medicare paid at least $1.5 million of those claims.
“Prosecuting healthcare fraud remains a high priority for the Department of Justice,” said Eileen M. Decker, the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles. “These sentences properly recognize and punish the fact that defendants stole money specifically set aside for those with acute medical needs.”
