Durable Medical Equipment

In Florida, the owner of durable medical equipment (DME) company was sentenced to 151 months in prison and ordered to pay $3.4 million in restitution. The man was convicted by a Federal jury for his scheme involving fraudulent prescriptions for non-commercially available aerosol medications so that they could be illegally "compounded." Compounding is a process of a pharmacist making the medication as opposed to a pharmaceutical manufacturer. The non-approved medications were then billed to the Medicare program. Pharmacy owners involved in the scheme returned half of the Medicare reimbursement to the DME company owner for each fraudulent prescription. Patients and physicians involved in the fraud scheme were also paid cash kickbacks.

In Arizona, a DME company owner was sentenced to 3 years in prison and ordered to pay over $680,000 in restitution for his fraudulent billing scheme. The man opened a storefront DME supplier that was never open to the public yet Medicare was fraudulently billed for DME that was never ordered or provided to beneficiaries. As a result of the investigation, approximately $431,000 was seized and forfeited to the Government.

Transportation Fraud

In Indiana, the operator of a transportation company was sentenced to 8 months in prison and ordered to pay $65,000 in restitution for health care fraud. The man billed the Medicaid program for non-emergency transportation services as if beneficiaries were wheelchair bound when they were not. The man, who was previously convicted in Georgia on similar charges, is facing deportation to Africa.

Employee Misconduct

In Maryland, a former NIH employee was sentenced to 45 days in prison and ordered to pay $24,000 in restitution for theft of Government property. Throughout a 2-year period, the woman used her Government-issued credit card to make unauthorized purchases for personal items including a laptop computer, shoes, clothing, and furniture. She also used the credit card for unauthorized travel and travel-related expenses.