DOJ plans to retry Philip Esformes despite Trump commuting sentence of Florida nursing home owner

A highly unusual move by the Justice Department to retry Florida nursing home owner Philip Esformes on health-care fraud criminal charges after then-President Donald Trump commuted his 20-year prison sentence is headed to an appeals court hearing as defense lawyers suggest prosecutors are motivated by anger at Trump.

"The situation is entirely unique because the actions of the prosecutors here are incredibly outrageous," said Joe Tacopina, a leading New York criminal defense attorney.

"There's no question in my mind that the [Justice Department's] flagrant disregard of President Trump's clemency order is motivated by acrimony towards him," said Tacopina.

Tacopina is not representing Esformes in the case. But he is assisting Esformes' new team from the Reed Smith law firm in preparing for the federal appeals court hearing next month in Miami.

He said prosecutors are engaged in an "obvious vendetta" against the former president for letting Esformes out of prison after a years-long criminal case.

"And if there's any question about that, what the prosecution is doing here against Mr. Esformes is unprecedented," Tacopina said. "He's clearly a political casualty of partisan games."

The Justice Department and a spokeswoman for the Miami U.S. Attorney's Office, which is prosecuting the case, did not respond to requests for comment on those claims.

“Health care executives who exploit patients through medically unnecessary services and conspire to obstruct justice in order to boost their own profits – as alleged in this case – have no place in our health care system,” said Special Agent in Charge Richmond. “Such actions only strengthen our resolve to protect patients and the U.S. taxpayers.”

Esformes operated a network of over 30 skilled nursing homes and assisted living facilities (the Esformes Network), which gave him access to thousands of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. Many of these beneficiaries did not qualify for skilled nursing home care or for placement in an assisted living facility; however, Esformes and his co-conspirators nevertheless admitted them to Esformes Network facilities where the beneficiaries received medically unnecessary services that were billed to Medicare and Medicaid.

steered these beneficiaries to other health care providers – including community mental health centers and home health care providers – who also performed medically unnecessary treatments that were billed to Medicare and Medicaid.

From I can gather, he admitted people who did not qualify (translation\/ they didn’t make enough money to qualify, so he figured out a way to get them into a care facility\/ Or he admitted those with money enough for private care, and placed them in a position for taxpayers to subsidize those who were of “Means”.

As someone stuck with a MIL who only receives $1,600 a month after Medicare is taken out, and is not coveted into a facility, it sounds like the kind of guy I want to run a facility in my area. We are poorer by half than her, and we cannot place her to take the load off of us. In short, we are stuck with a 96 year old dementia ridden hag, and the only way out is death. Any relief is a god send for people in my position.

So what are our hundreds of Billions going to? It is surely not for the indigent and aged. We flat out cannot find a place that will take someone who doesn’t have financial backing. I am assuming, there is a minimum amount of money patients must have to strip from the residents, or they are stuck with family. This guy had 30 facilities, what happened to them after he was arrested, then convicted? Were they rich enough to afford private care, and he shoe-horned them in to take spots from the needy? Or did he take all comers?

For those of you thinking of taking care of an elderly parent, DON’T DO IT. If you cannot afford it, and have some left over for you, DON’T DO IT. Seriously. A man who would take this woman out of my home and into one of his places, I say God bless you. If he is part of the problem in nearly every state, which is keeping the needy out, and taking in those who could afford their own care, hang him and send him to hell.

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