Fort Lauderdale, Fla. In the same state as Medicare's competitive bidding demonstration project, a former home health agency owner made history as a key player in two of the largest Medicare fraud rings in local history, according to South Florida's Sun-Sentinel.

Ramon Dominguez was sentenced in late January to six years in prison and ordered to pay $12.9 million to the Medicare program after pleading guilty to two separate cases involving the Amitan HHA he owned in Miami.

"I am repentful," Dominguez told U.S. District Judge William Dimitrouleas.

Dominguez was one of 34 Amitan employees and subcontractors indicted in October on charges of billing Medicare for more than $14 million in unnecessary home health services or for services that were never performed. Twenty-three defendants have pleaded guilty.

In an even larger case, Dominguez and eight others face racketeering charges in an alleged $45 million fraud scheme involving St. Johns Home Health Agency in 1993. One of the largest home health care providers in Florida, the company went bankrupt in 1994 after federal probes revealed that as much as 75 percent of its business was derived from phantom claims. Amitan was launched after Dominguez purchased the St. Johns Medicare certificate of need at a bankruptcy auction.-K.S.