NEW YORK—Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced Matthew Taylor Witkowski was sentenced to 60 months in prison for conspiracy to commit health care fraud by fraudulently trafficking in orders for durable medical equipment (DME) such as back, knee and elbow braces. Witkowski previously pled guilty to the conspiracy charge and was sentenced before United States District Judge Denise L. Cote.

Nearly every U.S. hospital and physician entity is more likely to refer patients to a post-acute care (PAC) provider that can support electronic data exchange, according to the latest leading independent survey on interoperability, commissioned by Brightree and MatrixCare, wholly owned subsidiaries of ResMed.

MONTREAL, Canada—AlayaCare, a developer of home- and community-based care operations platform, announced Visit Optimizer—helping homecare organizations increase their workforce efficiency and enhance caregiver scheduling for better client care and outcomes. Visit Optimizer is a feature developed by the AlayaLabs team, created to leverage innovative advanced algorithms, machine learning and AI for the AlayaCare Cloud platform.

PHOENIX, Arizona—CarePatrol, a senior care solutions organization, was recently named a top franchise by Franchise Business Review (FBR) in its report on the Top Recession-Proof Franchises for 2023. 
 

BRENTWOOD, Tennesse—Compassus, a national provider of home-based health care services, recently received the first Age-Friendly Care at Home certification for hospice in the country, awarded by Community Health Accreditation Partners. CHAP is a nationally approved accrediting organization that assesses the quality of health care providers.

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it is releasing ownership data for all Medicare-certified hospice and homecare agencies. For the first time, anyone can now review detailed information on the ownership of more than 6,000 hospices and 11,000 home health agencies certified to participate in the Medicare program on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) website.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—More than a year-and-a-half after Philips announced the voluntary recall of 3 million to 4 million of its sleep apnea devices and ventilators, the U.S.

WASHINGTON—On Tuesday, April 18, joined by people with disabilities, family caregivers, long-term care workers, early educators, veterans and aging advocates, President Joe Biden signed an executive order that includes more than 50 directives to nearly every cabinet-level agency to provide support for care workers and family caregivers.

Burkburnett, TEXAS—HomeWell Franchising Inc., the franchisor of HomeWell Care Services, a non-medical in-home care provider, recently welcomed Kara Holbert, a newcomer to the franchise, to serve in HomeWell’s new role as the director of client services and program development.

DALLAS—Integrity Marketing Group, LLC ("Integrity"), a distributor of life and health insurance, and provider of wealth management and retirement planning solutions, announced it has acquired MediSource, an independent marketing organization ("IMO") based in Little Rock, Arkansas. As part of the acquisition, Richard Dale Roulston, president of MediSource, will become a Managing Partner in Integrity. The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.