VIP Ambulance Owner Pleads Guilty To False Statements

Topics:  VIP Ambulance, Bassem Kuran

U.S. Attorney’s Office
Eastern District of Pennsylvania
29 June 2016

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PHILADELPHIA – Bassem Kuran, 23, of Philadelphia, PA, pleaded guilty on June 28, 2016 to criminal Information charging him with false statements in a health care matter, announced United States Attorney Zane David Memeger. The defendant faces a maximum possible sentence of 5 years in prison, three years of supervised release, a $250,000 fine, and a $100 special assessment. U.S. District Court Judge Gerald J. Pappert scheduled a sentencing hearing for September 30, 2016.

Kuran was the owner and President of VIP Ambulance, a company that provided ambulance services to Medicare beneficiaries seeking dialysis services. Kuran admitted to completing documentation for ambulance runs that did not occur, including documentation for patients who were no longer receiving dialysis or who actually took public transportation to the dialysis clinic. Kuran submitted bills to Medicare for these purported transports, which Medicare paid, and he personally provided copies of the false documentation supporting those bills to Medicare’s auditors in an attempt to justify the fraudulent bills that VIP had submitted.

As a result of the defendant’s false statements, the Medicare program paid more than $66,000 in inappropriate bills.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General, and the U.S. Department of Labor Office of the Inspector General. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Mary E. Crawley and Paul W. Kaufman.