Ambulance Company Driver Sentenced to Prison Term |
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Topics: Penn Choice Ambulance
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U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania
June 3, 2014
Yury Gerasyuk Is Second Defendant Sentenced in Large-Scale Medicare Fraud Conspiracy
PHILADELPHIA—Yury Gerasyuk, 42, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was sentenced today to 24 months in prison for his role in a conspiracy to defraud Medicare involving Penn Choice Ambulance Inc., located in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania and Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania. On April 9, 2013, the defendant, Anna Mudrova, Mikhail Vasserman, Irina Vasserman, Aleksandr Vasserman, Valeriy Davydchik, Khusen Akhmedov, and Penn Choice Ambulance Inc. were indicted and charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud and related charges. All defendants have pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Juan R. Sánchez. Gerasyuk is the second individual defendant to be sentenced by Judge Sánchez.
From September 2009 through January 2013, Penn Choice transported patients who were able to walk and could travel safely by means other than ambulance and who, therefore, were not eligible for ambulance transportation under Medicare requirements. Penn Choice falsified reports to make it appear that the patients needed to be transported by ambulance. Penn Choice billed Medicare for these medically unnecessary services. As a result, Penn Choice caused Medicare to pay more than $1.5 million based on these fraudulent claims. Defendant Gerasyuk joined Penn Choice in 2009 as an ambulance driver. He transported patients who walked to and from the ambulance, and he directed other Penn Choice employees to drive patients to medical appointments in their personal vehicles. Penn Choice submitted claims to Medicare for ambulance transport for these patients.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Sánchez ordered defendant Gerasyuk to pay restitution to Medicare and imposed a three-year term of supervised release after imprisonment. The court also ordered the forfeiture of any assets traceable to the offense, and in lieu of assets, a money judgment against the defendant of $405,298.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney M. Beth Leahy.