Aug. 01--The former chief operating officer of Sacred Heart Hospital was sentenced to 21 months in prison Friday for his role in a massive fraud scheme that paid kickbacks to doctors in exchange for referring often elderly nursing home patients to the West Side facility regardless of medical need.
Clarence Nagelvoort, 60, was the last of three hospital executives to be sentenced this week by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly after they were convicted together by a jury in March. Earlier this week, Kennelly handed down 4 1/2 years in prison to former Sacred Heart CEO Edward Novak and a one-year term to Roy Payawal, the hospital's chief financial officer.
Prosecutors argued that the now-shuttered hospital reaped nearly $35 million over the 12-year scheme by paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks to doctors in exchange for referring patients on Medicare or Medicaid.
As the hospital's day-to-day operator, Nagelvoort, of Chicago, helped disguise the illegal payoffs as compensation for consulting work, instructional services and lease agreements, according to prosecutors.
Many patients were taken to Sacred Heart from distant sites, admitted to the hospital for dubious medical reasons and given care that was substandard at best, prosecutors said. Meanwhile, the hospital was beset by problems, from poorly trained nurses to a maggot infestation in the intensive care unit that had to be quelled by dousing patients with bug spray, prosecutors have said.
In sentencing Novak on Wednesday, Kennelly noted that while the case unfolded in April 2013 with shocking charges of unnecessary surgeries and dangerous oversedation of patients, those allegations "disappeared" by the time of trial and prosecutors never proved any patients were ever physically harmed.
Six other doctors and hospital administrators have been convicted in the case.
jmeisner@tribpub.com
