Regional Digest

• A West Des Moines, NE, man and his son received jail terms for defrauding Medicare and Medicaid of about $1.5 million, reports the Omaha World-Herald. Curtis Churchill and his son, Shane, pleaded guilty to submitting false costs and fictitious invoices from their agency, Universal Home Health Care, the World-Herald reported. Prosecutors said the money was laundered through shell corporations, then sent to Panama and Liechtenstein.

• The Benson County, ND, home nursing program is being discontinued because federal reimbursements don’t cover the costs. "Our general-fund reserves were basically getting pretty slim," County Commission Chairman John Grann told the Associated Press. "It was either cut the program or make a long-term financial commitment to it, and we just didn’t feel we had the financial resources."