Mark Loftis, a Cushing, Okla.-based chiropractor and medical supply company owner, has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for a telemedicine-driven scheme that billed federal health programs more than $30 million for durable medical equipment that beneficiaries did not want or need.
Dr. Loftis, 39, owned Back Pain Home Supplies, which did business as EZ Medical Supply. He and his co-conspirators hid the company’s true ownership and management from Medicare, as well as the fact that unenrolled entities were billing claims through it, according to an Oct. 9 Justice Department news release.
Dr. Loftis paid more than $1 million in illegal kickbacks, some routed through a shell marketing company, to marketers, purported telemedicine companies and a call center, per the release. The call center persuaded elderly and disabled Americans to share their personal information. The group also bought sham orders for orthotic braces, continuous glucose monitors and other equipment, signed by telemedicine physicians and nurse practitioners who never examined, and often never spoke with, the beneficiaries.
The conspirators submitted more than $30 million in false claims to Medicare, Tricare and the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and they collected more than $8 million, the Justice Department said. In one case, they billed for eight braces for a single beneficiary.
A federal jury convicted Dr. Loftis of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and wire fraud in July after a 12-day trial. The court also ordered him to pay more than $8 million in restitution and to forfeit more than $560,000. He was sentenced Oct. 8 in the Middle District of Florida.
Since 2007, the Justice Department’s Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program has charged more than 6,200 defendants, who collectively billed federal programs and private insurers more than $45 billion, the agency said.
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