FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Former Owner of Salt Lake City Medical Equipment Supply Company Indicted and Three Company Employees Plead Guilty for Roles in Medicare Fraud Scheme
A former owner of a Salt Lake City medical equipment supply company has been indicted and three former company employees have pleaded guilty for allegedly engaging in a $20 million Medicare fraud scheme.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney David B. Barlow of the District of Utah, Special Agent in Charge Mary Rook of the FBI’s Salt Lake City Field Office, Special Agent in Charge Gerry Roy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) Kansas City Regional Office, and Special Agent in Charge Janice M. Flores of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service’s (DCIS) Southwest Field Office made the announcement.
Jacob Kilgore, 34, of Fruit Heights, Utah, was indicted in the District of Utah on three counts of health care fraud, three counts of false statements relating to health care matters, and three counts of wire fraud.
According to court documents, Kilgore was the co-owner, vice president, and regional sales manager of Orbit Medical Inc. (Orbit), a durable medical equipment supplier located in Salt Lake City specializing in power wheelchairs. From approximately September 2008 through June 2011, Kilgore allegedly directed a scheme to defraud Medicare by submitting false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for power wheelchairs. Court documents allege that Kilgore and others falsified medical records – including power wheelchair prescriptions and chart notes obtained from physicians – to make it appear that beneficiaries qualified to receive power wheelchairs when they did not and that the claims otherwise met all Medicare requirements. Kilgore and others then used these falsified documents to support false and fraudulent claims from Orbit to Medicare.
Additionally, former Orbit sales representatives Morgan Workman, 35, of Farmington, Utah; David Evans, 29, of South Jordan, Utah; and Hunter Hartman, 29, of Ladera Ranch, Calif., have each pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit health care fraud, based on the same alleged scheme to defraud Medicare. They are awaiting sentencing.
The scheme allegedly resulted in more than $20 million in claims from Orbit to Medicare for power wheelchairs, of which Medicare paid more than $15 million.
The charges and allegations contained in the indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
The case was investigated by the FBI, HHS-OIG and DCIS. This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Niall M. O’Donnell of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Y. Hirata of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah.
