Fake hospice nurse in Dallas-Fort Worth gets four years in prison

A 34-year-old Dallas woman who stole identity information from a registered nurse and used it to land jobs at eight North Texas hospice companies was sentenced Monday to four years in federal prison, the U.S. attorney’s office reported.

Jada Antoine, who was not licensed as a nurse or as any other healthcare provider, was assigned to care for 243 hospice patients during more than three years before she was arrested in July 2014.

She pleaded guilty in December 2014 to one count of fraud in connection with means of identification. On Monday, U.S. District Judge David C. Godbey also ordered Antoine to pay $233,000 in restitution.

Antoine has been in custody since her arrest in Georgia. She had faced a maximum of 15 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine plus restitution.

Antoine stole a registered nurse’s driver’s license and Social Security card, and used the identification to get hired by companies including Silverado Senior Living Hospice, Keystone Custom Care Hospice, New Century Hospice, Hospice Pharmacy Solutions, Elysian Hospice, Community Hospice of Texas, Odessey Healthcare GP, Llc., and Heart to Heart Hospice of Texas, according to a news release.

From January 2009 to April 2012, the companies submitted about $800,000 in hospice care claims to Medicare for services reportedly performed by Antoine.

In addition to the financial fraud, prosecutors noted that Antoine “deprived [patients] of legitimate healthcare.” She “treated patients who were mentally ill, comatose, asleep, and otherwise unresponsive to sound and touch, and in those instances, she made her own assessments of the patient’s pain and comfort levels, digestive function, and breathing,” the news release said.

“She violated patients’ privacy by gaining access to patient charts and speaking with nursing home staff and patients’ family members. She further violated their privacy by gaining access to the patients’ detailed demographic information, which, according to the government’s motion, is particularly troublesome given her history of identity theft crimes.”

Antoine received about $107,000 in pay from the agencies.

This report includes material from the Star-Telegram archives.

This story was originally published August 24, 2015 at 6:34 PM with the headline "Fake hospice nurse in Dallas-Fort Worth gets four years in prison."