Ex-Head of Pennsylvania Hospice Faces Insurance Fraud Charges

A woman who formerly headed a suburban Pittsburgh hospice faces sentencing on a health care fraud charge accusing her of using patients who weren’t terminally ill to collect millions of dollars in false Medicare and Medicaid claims.

Former Horizons Hospice chief operating officer Mary Ann Stewart pleaded guilty in June. She’s appearing Monday before a federal judge in Pittsburgh.

One of the grand jury counts was dismissed last year after a judge agreed with Stewart’s attorney that questions about whether her estranged husband stayed in hotels on the company’s dime weren’t specific enough.

Stewart faces up to 10 years in prison, a fine of $500,000 or both.

Prosecutors say the scheme cost the government millions of dollars from January 2008 through August 2012 at the facility in Monroeville, 15 miles east of Pittsburgh.