Owners of Texas based medical equipment companies convicted of fraud were sentenced to long term prison terms and ordered to pay substantial restitution to Medicare and Medicaid on January 21, 2010.
Rhonda Fleming, 44, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison without parole and ordered to pay $6.29 million in restitution.
Rose Ebhamen, 45, was sentenced to 135 months and ordered to pay $1.9 million.
"Fleming was the owner of three (medical supply) companies- Hi-Tech Medical Supply & Delivery, E&R Medical Supply and Medical Equipment and Supply Center, as well as a Medicare billing company, Advanced Medical Billing Specialists Inc.," said an FBI news statement. "Ebhamen was the owner of First Advantage Nursing, another DME company."
King Arthur, the co-owner of an additional Houston durable medical equipment company called Hi-Tech, was also convicted from the April 2009 jury trials.
Arthur was sentenced to 95 months in prison and ordered to pay $4 million.
Evidence showed "Fleming purchased Medicare beneficiary information, including their names and Medicare numbers from co-defendant James Chaney and others for use in the scheme."
Fleming's employees created fictitious delivery tickets to give the appearance that medical equipment had been delivered by Hi-Tech, First Advantage and E&R to the Medicare beneficiaries.
"Ebhamen and Arthur allowed Fleming to use their Medicare supplier numbers to execute the scheme," said a Department of Justice press release. "Virtually none of the $36 million of durable medical equipment billed to Medicare was ever purchased or delivered to the Medicare beneficiaries."
"Khira Guillory testified she billed Medicare $7.5 million for equipment that was never delivered. Fleming and her five co-defendants' fraud scheme caused Medicare/Medicaid to pay out approximately $6.3 million in fraudulent claims."
The sentence were handed down by United States District Judge Gray Miller.
Comments