The embattled ex-CEO of a string of now-shuttered Merced-area health clinics that served thousands of low-income patients signed an agreement to plead guilty to defrauding Medi-Cal of millions of dollars.

Sandra Haar, 59, of Merced, was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay $6,107,846 in restitution for health care fraud and conspiracy to receive kickbacks. Haar was ordered to self-surrender on Jan. 15, 2020, to begin serving her sentence.

Haar was the founder and chief executive officer of Horisons Unlimited, a nonprofit public benefit corporation that provided health and dental services in Merced and surrounding communities. She was a nurse practitioner who had been CEO of the clinic since its opening in 2004

According to its 2014 tax filings, Horisons reported nearly $7.6 million in revenue, with functional expenses of $6.7 million.

According to court documents, between January 1, 2014, and March 2017, Haar orchestrated a scheme to bill Medicare and Medi-Cal for services she knew were not reimbursable, and she profited by over $3.7 million from her fraud.

For example, Haar billed Medi-Cal for health and dental services that were not rendered and for unnecessary health care services. She also billed 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, Haar also received thousands of dollars in kickbacks in cash from an account executive at a laboratory in exchange for using it for patients’ laboratory testing.

This case was the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS OIG), the California Department of Health Care Services, and the California Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud & Elder Abuse.