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Woman sentenced in patient brokeringBy GRAHAM BRINK
© St. Petersburg Times, TAMPA -- The sister of the top official in a nationwide patient-brokering operation was sentenced to three years of probation in federal court Tuesday. Lisa Marie DeMaria, who pleaded guilty early this year to one count of accepting remuneration for the referral of Medicare patients, was also ordered to pay $17,400 in restitution and a $1,000 fine. DeMaria, 40, told U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday that she was sorry and embarrassed. She admitted that in 1994 and 1995 she took $2,000 each for referring three patients from New Jersey and New York to Heritage Hospital, a now-closed facility in Citrus County. She was recruited into the patient-brokering business by her brother, Palm Beach businessman William DeMaria Jr., according to court documents. Merryday said during the hearing that he was inclined to sentence DeMaria to a term of house arrest. DeMaria's attorney, John Fitzgibbons, however, argued that his client had played a minor role in the operation, and other defendants with a similar role had received only probation. "We've done everything that the government has asked us to do," Fitzgibbons argued. "She has the wrong last name . . . but she was simply a broker." William DeMaria and partners Ronald W. Greenfield and Peter D. Stratton operated Progressive Health Care in the 1990s. The Morganville, N.J., firm charged up to $3,000 each for patients sent to facilities around the nation, including Heritage Hospital, Sun Coast Hospital in Largo and the Manors in Tarpon Springs. Federal prosecutors have called the operation the largest patient-brokering business in the United States. William DeMaria was sentenced last month to 16 months in prison. He was ordered to pay a fine of $250,000 and restitution of about $1.5-million to settle the government's civil claim against him.
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