Hudson Valley Home Care Company Owner Guilty Of Fraud

Attorney General Spitzer today announced that the owner of a Poughkeepsie-based home health care company was found guilty late yesterday of stealing $600,000 from Medicaid.

Daniel B. Rubin, 44, owner of Allstate Home Care Inc., was found guilty of one count of Second Degree Grand Larceny and eight counts of Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree after a two week trial in Albany County Court for submitting tens of thousands of inflated bills to Medicaid for home health care services.

Rubin charged Medicaid as much as 25 percent above rates charged to privately insured patients. The fraudulent billings covered approximately 260,000 hours of service from January 1994 through November 1997.

In addition, Attorney General Spitzer has filed a civil suit against Rubin for treble damages of $1.8 million and is also seeking to forfeit Rubin's $1 million, 11-acre estate in Clinton Corners, Dutchess County.

"Fraud within the Medicaid system adds untold millions of dollars each year to the cost of medical care borne by New York taxpayers," said Spitzer."My Medicaid Fraud Control Unit is charged with protecting taxpayer dollars and will vigorously prosecute unscrupulous medical providers who attempt to steal from the public."

Rubin, who is being held without bail in Albany County jail, faces up to 15 years in prison when Judge Paul Czajka sentences him on May 7.

Allstate Home Care Inc., Rubin's company, pleaded guilty to one count of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree on March 8, 1999.

The case was handled for the Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit by Special Assistant Attorney General Patrick Lupinetti.