Will The Feds Come After Tustin Hospitals Next?

All the key swindlers in the homeless patient dumping scheme that sucked hundreds of thousands of dollars from Medicare and Medi-Cal programs in fradulent claims last year have been indicted -- except, that is, for the bad boys in Tustin who were also allegedly involved in the scheme.

Last August a several months-long federal investigation culminated with the raids of three hospitals and the arrest of a hospital CEO in Los Angeles for alleged involvement a scheme that recruited homeless "patients" from L.A.'s Skid Row and then dumped them after they'd been "treated" at the hospitals involved in the fraud scheme.

Two of the three hospitals raided -- Los Angeles Metropolitan Medical Center and Tustin Hospital and Medical Center -- are owned by Tustin-based Pacific Health Corp., the same company that's also been busy managing other code-violating problems at Anaheim General Hospital, which it also owns.

Robert Bourseau, a co-owner of the third hospital raided last year (City of Angels Medical Center), was arrested this morning on federal charges of paying illegal kickbacks in the scheme. Former City of Angels vice-president, Dante Nicholson, was indicted yesterday. If convicted of the 12 counts in the indictment, the two face up to 65 years in prison and fines of up to $6 million.

Former City of Angels CEO Rudra Sabaratnam and Estill Mitts, a former "patient" recruiter already pleaded guilty to similar charges and are scheduled to be sentenced in March and June.

The federal investigation is still ongoing, according to the U.S. Attorney's office, and the only entities that remain completely unscathed by the federal raids are our Tustin-based friends.