Federal Probe Charges Nursing Home Owner in Alleged $64M Medicare Fraud Scheme Involving Durable Medical Equipment

By Zahida Siddiqi

The former owner of an Illinois-based nursing home has been charged with healthcare fraud in connection with an alleged scheme involving more than $64 million in fraudulent Medicare claims related to durable medical equipment (DME). 

Rajiv Shah, who was the primary owner of St. Anthony’s Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Rock Island, Ill., has been charged with a conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and wire fraud, in connection with the alleged scheme, according to charges filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.

Shah also owned and operated ACC-Q Data LLC, a medical billing company that allegedly conspired with DME suppliers to submit fraudulent Medicare claims, the indictment states.

“Rajiv Shah and his co-conspirators submitted and caused the submission on behalf of the DME Companies of more than $64 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare, via interstate wire communications, for DME that was medically unnecessary and ineligible for reimbursement,” the indictment filing dates June 18 alleges.

Medicare allegedly paid the DME companies over $23 million for these claims, the filing further states, noting that the companies paid Shah a percentage of the reimbursements they received from Medicare totaling approximately $1.127 million from June 2019 through December 2025.

“We are the billing company. We just bill for different companies,” Shah told Skilled Nursing News. 

Prosecutors allege Shah advised the companies on how to avoid Medicare scrutiny and conceal the fraudulent nature of the claims.

However, Shah explained that he merely handled billing, was no longer involved with the companies after October 2023, and denied responsibility for the alleged $64 million fraud.

“Though I would have taken $1 million, the claim is $64 million. But those guys were already convicted,” Shah told SNN. “In the last few years, I didn’t keep tab of it because what happens in a medical billing business is that people come in, you do billing for two years, they sell the company or they buy another company or they start doing billing themselves. It is a completely turbulent industry. So, [with] all these people, I’m not done billing. I do not know any of them, where they are even from October 2023. That was the last billing I did for these four companies.”

Shah previously held more than a 90% ownership stake in St. Anthony’s from April 2022 until April 2026, he said.

The charges do not allege wrongdoing involving St. Anthony’s and are part of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown, a nationwide enforcement effort targeting hundreds of defendants accused of defrauding federal healthcare programs. Shah was indicted in June 2026.

The DOJ said the broader 2026 Health Care Fraud Takedown resulted in charges against 455 defendants, including 90 physicians and other licensed medical professionals, for schemes involving more than $6.5 billion in false claims.

The investigation also included provider suspensions, billing privilege revocations, asset seizures exceeding $182 million, as well as coordinated enforcement actions by federal and state agencies. tigation also included provider suspensions, billing privilege revocations, asset seizures exceeding $182 million, as well as coordinated enforcement actions by federal and state agencies. 

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Federal Probe Charges Nursing Home Owner in Alleged $64M Medicare Fraud Scheme Involving Durable Medical Equipment