Wayne Residents Among Six Home Health Agency Employees Charged with Scamming Medicaid

A former employee of a home health agency pleaded guilty to charges that he caused bills to be submitted to the Medicaid program for services that were never provided, Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman and the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor (OIFP) announced.

Naum Lavnevich, 57, of Oakland, pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree health care claims fraud before Bergen County Superior Court Judge Edward A. Jerejian. As part of the plea agreement, the State recommended that he serve three years in state prison and pay restitution in the amount of $5,614, Hoffman said. His sentencing is scheduled for April 10.

Lavnevich admitted that between Jan. 2008 and Oct. 2010, he caused 178 claims to be submitted to Medicaid for services that were not provided and as a result, Medicaid paid out $5,614.

An investigation determined that in many of the instances in which Lavnevich was purportedly providing services to Medicaid beneficiaries, he was at another, unrelated job, and on multiple occasions, even out of the country, and therefore unable to have performed the services, according to Hoffman.

Lavnevich was a certified homemaker home health aide at Confident Care Corporation, a company that is headquartered in Hackensack and has ten satellite offices throughout New Jersey, as well as offices in Florida.

He is one of six current or former employees of Confident Care to be charged by OIFP for scamming Medicaid in a similar fashion. The others include:

• Anatoli Rountsev, 52, of Totowa, pleaded guilty in December to one count second-degree health care claims fraud, admitting that between June 2008 and June 2009, he caused 463 false claims to be submitted to Medicaid, which paid out $12,598. His sentencing is scheduled for March 27.
• Vladimir Faerman, 66, of Hawthorne, charged in October with 175 counts of second-degree health care claims fraud, second-degree theft by deception and third-degree Medicaid fraud. Faerman allegedly caused fraudulent claims totaling $87,616.23 to be submitted to the Medicaid program for work he never actually completed.
• Elhan Gurban, 52, of Fort Lee, charged in July with 45 counts of second-degree health care claims fraud and one count each of third-degree Medicaid fraud and third-degree theft by deception. Gurban allegedly caused 1,413 false claims to be submitted to Medicaid, which paid out $64,125.
• Roman Abashkin, 32, of Wayne, charged in July with 24 counts of second-degree health care claims fraud and one count each of third-degree Medicaid fraud and third-degree theft by deception. Abashkin allegedly caused 212 fraudulent claims to be submitted to Medicaid, which paid out $6,664.
• Semen Rybalov, 68, of Wayne, charged in July with 15 counts of second-degree health care claims fraud and one count each of third-degree Medicaid fraud and third-degree theft by deception. Rybalov allegedly caused 45 false claims to be submitted to Medicaid, which paid out $2,180.

Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Chillemi noted that some important cases have started with anonymous tips and that people who are concerned about insurance cheating and have information about a fraud can report it anonymously by calling the toll‑free hotline at 1‑877‑55‑FRAUD, or visiting www.NJInsurancefraud.org.

State regulations permit a reward to be paid to an eligible person who provides information that leads to an arrest, prosecution and conviction for insurance fraud.