The owner of a pair of medical equipment companies was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being found guilty of leading a scheme that billed Medicare for more than $24 million in medically unnecessary durable medical equipment and repairs.
Tamara Motley, 55, of Redondo Beach, Calif., was also ordered to pay more than $13.1 million in restitution and a $2,300 special assessment, according to a Dec. 6 Justice Department news release.
Ms. Motley in June was found guilty on 20 counts of healthcare fraud, two counts of aggravated identity theft and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
She orchestrated the scheme by paying marketers for patient referrals and then directing them to take patients to physicians who prescribed medically unnecessary durable medical equipment, such as power wheelchairs. Later, when Medicare changed reimbursement rules for power chairs to make upfront payments less lucrative to suppliers, Ms. Motley switched to fraudulently billing for power wheelchair repairs, the release said.
Two other defendants — an office manager and repair technician for the companies — previously pleaded guilty to their roles in the scheme. The office manager, Cynthia Marquez, 48, received a time served sentence and was ordered to pay more than $9.8 million in restitution. The technician, Juan Murillo, 47, was sentenced to three years' probation and ordered to pay more than $2.5 million in restitution.