RPV Nurse Pleads Guilty in $5 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme

Two Southland nurses both face potential sentences of 10 years in federal prison for their roles in a Medicare fraud scheme that paid kickbacks to doctors and patients who did not qualify for in-home health services, prosecutors said today.

Hee "Angela" Jung Mun, 50, of Rancho Palos Verdes, and 43-year-old Ji Hae Kim, of Fullerton, pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal health care fraud charges before U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Mun, a registered nurse who operated now-defunct Greatcare Home Health Inc. in Westlake admitted defrauding Medicare by paying illegal kickbacks to doctors and patients, among other criminal activity, according to a plea agreement.

The scheme, which bilked the federal health care program out of about $5 million, targeted elderly, primarily Korean, Medicare beneficiaries, prosecutors said.

Kim, a nurse who worked at Greatcare, admitted in her plea agreement that she prepared false forms to fraudulently justify that Medicare beneficiaries needed home health services.

She also falsely claimed to have made patient visits that she knew were either conducted by unlicensed people or not conducted at all, federal prosecutors said.

Mun and Kim are scheduled Oct. 1 for sentencing.

Two other people involved in the scheme were charged last week with health care fraud.

Seonweon Kim, 46, of Arcadia and Jung Sook Lee, 51, of Koreatown are expected to make their initial court appearances on Jan. 23.