Glendale woman gets 9 years in prison for $10.6 million hospice scheme

A Glendale woman was sentenced this week to nine years in federal prison for her role in a scheme in which illegal kickbacks were paid for patient referrals that resulted in the submission of nearly $10.6 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare for purported hospice care.

Nita Almuete Paddit Palma, 75, was sentenced on Tuesday, Aug. 5, by U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee, who also ordered her to pay $8.27 million in restitution, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

At a separate hearing on Tuesday, the judge sentenced Percy Dean Abrams, 75, of Lakewood, to three years of probation, which will include two years of home confinement.

After a six-day trial, a federal jury in December 2024 found Palma guilty of a dozen counts of healthcare fraud and 16 counts of paying illegal kickbacks for healthcare referrals. The jury also found Abrams guilty of six counts of receiving illegal kickbacks for healthcare referrals.

Palma purchased Magnolia Gardens Hospice through her daughter and bought C@A Hospice through her husband in 2015 and concealed her ownership interests in both hospices from Medicare, evidence showed.

Palma then paid “marketers,” including Abrams, hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal kickbacks for patient referrals that she could bill to Medicare for purported hospice care, according to evidence presented at trial.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Palma received nearly $6,000 each month a patient was billed to Medicare for hospice. In turn, Palma paid Abrams and other marketers up to $1,000 per month in illegal kickbacks for each patient referred to her that was billed to Medicare for hospice.

Many of the patients that were billed to Medicare through Magnolia Gardens Hospice did not know they were signed up for hospice, and some patients only found out after they were denied medical coverage for services they needed, court papers show.