Nursing supervisor pleads guilty in health care scheme that led to early deaths of hospice patients

A nursing supervisor for one of the largest hospice providers in North Texas will plead guilty as part of a $60 million health care fraud scheme that prosecutors say included fatally overdosing patients for profit.

Jessica Love, 38, of Gainesville is scheduled to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, according to a plea agreement and factual resume filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Dallas. The documents state that Love participated in the fatal over-medication of two patients.

Love is the second of 16 defendants to reach plea agreements in criminal charges involving Frisco-based Novus Health Services Inc. and Optim Health Services Inc., collectively known as Novus.

She worked as a registered nurse case manager and regional director for Novus, which shut down several years ago amid the federal investigation. Love worked for Novus from August 2012 to about July 2014, documents state.

Last month, Melanie Murphey also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud. Murphey worked as Novus' director of operations.

As part of the plea deals, both women are expected to testify against the other defendants. The federal trial is scheduled to start Jan. 7.

Court documents for the pair outline an elaborate scheme involving Novus' owner and CEO, Bradley Harris, his wife, Amy, and several doctors, nurses and other employees. Their goal was to get as many patients admitted into hospice care as possible, even if they weren't eligible for hospice services. The patients would then be enrolled in around-the-clock care, which Medicare paid for at a higher rate than routine care. If patients were in this continuous care for too long, they were overmedicated so they would die sooner, documents stated.

Hospice care is meant to help terminally ill patients who are not seeking curative treatment.

Details of scheme

Indictments in the case allege that from July 2012 to September 2015, Novus billed Medicare and Medicaid over $60 million for fraudulent hospice services. The government paid Novus over $35 million.

As part of the scheme, assisted-living facilities and doctors earned money to refer patients to Novus. Patients were also lured into signing with Novus after they received wheelchairs, walkers or other equipment, documents say.

The scheme also included falsifying records, according to documents. Federal prosecutors say the paperwork showed doctors had evaluated patients when they had not. Stacks of prescriptions, all pre-signed by doctors, were readily available to obtain narcotics such as morphine.

Court documents outline an elaborate scheme involving Novus owner and CEO Bradley Harris and his wife, Amy, as well as several doctors, nurses and other employees. Their alleged goal was to get as many patients admitted into hospice care as possible, even if they weren't eligible.

(File Photo)

All patients joining Novus were required to sign "do not resuscitate" orders that had already been notarized and signed in advance by doctors. That's because Novus didn't want to pay for any medical care used to resuscitate its patients who went to the hospital or called 911, documents state.

Documents from Love and Murphey also stated that the "purported medical services for which Novus billed Medicare and Medicaid were often directed by Bradley Harris. These directions included Bradley Harris's [sic] instructing nurses to intentionally overmedicate beneficiaries with medications such as hydromorphone and morphine with the intent to hasten their deaths," documents state.

If nurses didn't follow Harris' orders, he replaced them, documents stated.

Harris is a certified public accountant with no formal medical training, prosecutors say.

Harris has denied wrongdoing. His attorney disagreed with the information in Murphey's factual resume filed last month. Much of that same information is in Love's plea documents.

"We are not aware of any evidence that shows that Mr. Harris caused, hastened or otherwise contributed to the death of the hospice patients being treated by Novus," defense attorney Chris Knox said last month. Knox said Friday that he had no further comment.

Love has been a registered nurse in Texas since 2006. But after disciplinary action by the Texas Board of Nursing in 2012, she was forbidden to work as a registered nurse at a hospice company. So at Novus, she supervised registered nurses and licensed vocational nurses in her region. She also served as a liaison between doctors and nurses, recruited doctors and performed other tasks directed by Harris, her direct supervisor.

Love described dictating notes to a doctor as he filled out evaluation forms for patients he had not seen. Novus paid $150 for each of those falsified forms, according to documents.

'Works like a little charm'

Love also stated that she participated in overmedicating two hospice patients who died. In one case, documents state, Harris called in a nurse to replace others who weren't medicating at the maximum levels he wanted.

In a text message, Love directed the nurse to "give the Jessica CC orders." Those continuous care orders included turning off the patient's oxygen, increasing Ativan and morphine and rolling the patient onto the left side. This "works like a little charm," Love texted. The patient died within five hours, documents state.

In a second case, Love had stored leftover morphine from one patient at her home. She delivered the drug to a nurse, who then used it to overmedicate another patient who died, documents state.

Love and Murphey each face up to 10 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Sentencing for Murphey is set for Oct. 24. Love's sentencing date has not been set.

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Nursing supervisor pleads guilty in health care scheme that led to early deaths of hospice patients