Owner Of Medical Supply Company Gets 5 Years For Medicare Fraud
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The owner of a Southern California medical supply company has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison for Medicare fraud in an unneeded electric wheelchair scam.
A Los Angeles federal judge sentenced 40-year-old Marlon Oslvaldo Palma late Tuesday for fraudulently collecting nearly $2 million from Medicare for $5,000 power wheelchairs and other unneeded medical equipment.
Palma, the co-owner of Santos Medical Supply, pleaded guilty a year ago to conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
Prosecutors say the South Los Angeles man bought Medicare patient information and bogus prescriptions from a medical clinic and patient recruiters. He then used that information to bill Medicare.
Five other defendants in the case have been convicted or pleaded guilty.
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