New Jersey Brothers Sentenced In Medicaid Fraud

Two brothers from the Vineland, New Jersey area were sentenced to prison on Friday by US District Judge Freda Wolfson in Trenton for submitting $5.5 million in false claims to Medicaid for medical services never rendered at their two adult day care centers. Ernest Galletta, vice president of Horizon National Healthcare LLC, was sentenced to 55 months in prison. His brother George Galletta, the owner of Horizon, was sentenced to six months in prison and six months home confinement; he received a lesser sentence because his brother had hidden the fraud from him for more than two years. They had each pleaded guilty on November 2, 2007 to single count informations of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. AP here, DOJ Press Release (.pdf) here.