Home Health Care Worker Sentenced

A Dallas home health care provider who was the focus of a FOX 4 Investigation will spend 46 months in federal prison.

Irene Anderson sobbed in federal court as she pleaded for mercy. The Nigerian national told Judge Jane Boyle she was just trying to make a better life for her family. But the judge said she has seen few government scams involving this much money.

Anderson was also ordered to pay $2,276,622.31 in restitution. She will also forfeit her Hummer H2, a Suzuki, and the $8,500.00 cash she had in her car when she was arrested last April.

Assistant U.S. Attorney, Katherine Miller, who prosecuted Anderson, says Anderson didn’t fight the charges and received a fair sentence.

FOX 4 started its investigation of Anderson last year when former employees told us she was operating home health agencies under two identities and fraudulently billing the government. They had also reported it to the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services, which licenses home health providers.  But the state agency investigated and found it wasn’t true. FOX 4 found it was.

Our investigation found that Anderson was able to bill Medicare more than eight million dollars even after she was ordered deported in 1992. FOX 4 also found Anderson's patients running errands and moving furniture when they were supposed to be "homebound."

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General raided Anderson's home health businesses and shut them down one day after our story aired last April. She was indicted a week later and Anderson pleaded guilty in August. Miller says Anderson is being held accountable for her greed.

"We are aggressively pursuing healthcare fraud," Miller told FOX 4. "If you defraud the U.S. government, the Medicare program, or private insurance we will track you down and we will prosecute you and you will serve time."

Investigators say Anderson was in the process of creating a third identity when she was arrested. She will likely be deported upon release from prison in 2013.

Read the U.S. Attorney's press release .