Former Merced Health Care Provider CEO Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison for Medi-Cal and Health Care Fraud

Health care fraud prosecutions continue to focus on nonprofit and community health clinics. At times, the community health centers are not run as rigorously as hospitals or larger entities but they are held to the same standard. Non-profits have special rules and founders or executives cannot run them for their own benefit. A recent case shows an aggressive prosecution against the founder and CEO of a nonprofit in California.

Photo: mvelez@mercedsunstar.com

On November 5, 2019, Sandra Haar, 59, of Merced, was sentenced in Fresno by U.S. District Judge O’Neil to five years in prison and ordered to pay $6,107,846 in restitution for health care fraud and conspiracy to receive kickbacks. Ms. Haar was ordered to self-surrender on Jan. 15, 2020, to begin serving her sentence. 

This sentence came after a guilty plea as there was no trial.  She had plead guilty in 2018 and as part of the plea agreement her daughter and husband would not be prosecuted. This is often an important part of the plea where other family members have been involved in a business.


Ms. Haar was the founder and chief executive officer of Horisons Unlimited, a nonprofit public benefit corporation that provided health and dental services to low-income patients in Merced, San Juaquin Valley, and surrounding communities. 

According to court documents, between January 1, 2014, and March 2017, Ms. Haar orchestrated a method of billing Medicare and Medi-Cal for services she knew were not reimbursable. For example, Ms. Haar billed Medi‑Cal for health and dental services that were not rendered and for unnecessary health care services.

Some of the more colorful allegations to which Ms. Haar agreed to plead were that she allowed the organization to bill Medi-Cal for office visits with purportedly licensed doctors when the patients instead were dispensed Suboxone, an opioid medication, in the parking lots of McDonald’s and Rite Aid in baggies.


According to court documents, Ms. Haar personally received thousands of dollars in kickbacks in cash from an account executive at a laboratory in exchange for using it for patients’ laboratory testing.

Attorney Commentary: The non-profit community clinics that rely solely on Medi-Cal and Medicare will find that it is very difficult, if not impossible to break even without a foundation or additional support. In addition, non-profits have to be run for the community benefit. Often business people form a non-profit but do not follow the rules regarding conflict of interest, excess benefits and no self-dealing.

This was a case where the non-profit sued her in a civil lawsuit in 2017 and that is what led to this criminal investigation. In the civil case, she was alleged to have borrowed $758,346 from the nonprofit without Board approval to buy properties for her family. In addition, she added her husband as an employee with an annual salary of $65,000 with no duties and a $50,000 annual pension, again with no Board approval. The financial mismanagement then led to an audit of billing while she was CEO. Finding a kickback arrangement with a laboratory was one of the black and white issues that would lead to criminal charges. 

Posted by: Tracy Green, Esq.
Green and Associates
Email: tgreen@greenassoc.com
Direct Dial: 213-233-2261