A Florida man was sentenced to 17½ years in prison for his role in a fraud scheme that submitted more than $10.8 million in fraudulent claims for durable medical equipment to Medicare.
What happened?
- Lino Gutierrez, 59, of Palm City, was sentenced in July after being convicted in April of 11 healthcare fraud-related offenses, according to a July 25 news release.
- Between October 2018 and April 2019, Mr. Gutierrez conspired with others to create sham companies that shipped braces to Medicare beneficiaries.
- Some of the beneficiaries were identified through telemarketing. Other beneficiaries had personal identifying information stolen by the conspirators.
- Mr. Gutierrez and his co-conspirators paid kickbacks to other companies in exchange for signed physicians’ orders. These companies used overseas call centers to solicit patients and fraudulent telemedicine companies to procure fake prescriptions for braces.
- As part of the scheme, Mr. Gutierrez, a licensed broker, also filed false records with his employer and a private regulatory organization of brokers to conceal his involvement in the durable medical equipment companies.
- In addition to the prison sentence, Mr. Gutierrez was also ordered to pay more than $5.6 million in restitution.
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