The owner and operator of two West Covina hospices was arrested on a 14-count federal grand jury indictment alleging she filed more than $4.8 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare—which paid more than $3.8 million on those claims—for medically unnecessary services for people not terminally ill and for paying kickbacks to marketers to procure patients. Normita Sierra, 71, a.k.a. “Normie,” of West Covina, is charged with nine counts of healthcare fraud, one count of conspiracy, and four counts of illegal remuneration for healthcare referrals. Also arrested was Rowena Elegado, 55, a.k.a. “Weng,” also of West Covina, who is charged with one count of conspiracy, and four counts of illegal remuneration for healthcare referrals.
According to the indictment, Sierra owned and operated Golden Meadows Hospice Inc., and D’Alexandria Hospice Inc., which billed Medicare for hospice services for patients who were not terminally ill during a scheme that lasted from September 2018 to October 2022. Sierra and Elegado allegedly worked together to pay marketers to recruit patients to the hospices, knowing that most of those patients had not been referred by their primary care physicians for such services. Those kickbacks, often referred to internally using the code words “girl scout cookies,” amounted to as much as $1,300 per patient, per month that the patient stayed on hospice service.