A Florida resident was sentenced to five years in prison for his role in an $11 million scheme to defraud Medicare by supplying fraudulent orders for durable medical equipment.
According to an Aug. 16 news release from the Justice Department, Anthony Cracchiolo and a partner owned five fraudulent medical equipment companies, which they used to file $11 million in fraudulent Medicare claims. Mr. Cracchiolo and the partner, not named in the Justice Department's release, paid over $500,000 in kickbacks for fraudulent orders for medical equipment, and resold some fraudulent orders to other suppliers for over $400,000 in proceeds.
Medicare paid Mr. Cracchiolo more than $5.5 million for the fraudulent claims. Mr. Cracchiolo has been ordered to repay this sum to the Medicare program.