A former contractor with the village of Elmwood Park faces sentencing in federal court next month after being found guilty of participating in a multi-million dollar health care fraud scheme.
Mary Talaga, 54, who also lives in Elmwood Park, was convicted in May for her participation in a $4.5 million health care fraud scheme that included billing Medicare for services given to patients who were dead, according to U.S. Justice Department. Talaga was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, six counts of health care fraud and three counts of false statements relating to a health care matter.
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Talaga worked briefly for the village of Elmwood Park as the village’s Senior Advocate in 2013, but was let go once the government announced the charges against her.
Elmwood Park Village Manager Paul Volpe the village didn’t receive any complaints from seniors Talaga met with while working on behalf of the village.
Talaga was charged based on her work in medical billing before she was hired by the village. Talaga worked for Rockford-based Home Care America Inc. which oversaw Medicall Physicians Group.
While working for the company, Talaga and the company’s president, who was also found guilty of the same charges, were accused of falsely billing Medicare for services that were never provided to patients. Some of the patients were dead, the Justice Department alleged. She also directed physicians to create false documentation after billing for services that had not been documented or provided, the government said.
Through Medicall, Talaga and her boss submitted approximately $12 million in claims to Medicare, $4.5 million of which were shown to be fraudulent at trial, according to the Justice Department.
Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for Aug. 7.
Twitter: @DavidDPollard