Two men who ran a telemarketing operation aimed at older Medicare recipients are heading to federal prison, one of them for 17 years. Prosecutors in South Florida proved that the pair pressured elderly Medicare Advantage members into accepting braces and other equipment they neither needed nor wanted, then billed insurers roughly $35 million. The case is a window into a fraud that quietly costs the Medicare system — and the beneficiaries who fund it — hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
The $35 million durable medical equipment scheme in South Florida
Michael Kochen, 42, of Aventura, a health care executive, was sentenced to 204 months in federal prison — 17 years. Sandro Herek, 56, of Coral Springs, who owned a telemarketing company, received 92 months. Both were sentenced in the Southern District of Florida after being convicted at trial, and the sentences leave no question of guilt: these are convictions, not accusations.
The scheme centered on durable medical equipment — back, knee, shoulder and ankle braces — submitted as about $35 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare Advantage plans. Those claims resulted in more than $19 million in payments before the operation was shut down. The FBI’s Miami field office detailed the case and the roles each man played.
How the telemarketing pressure worked
The engine of the scheme was deceptive telemarketing. Prosecutors showed that the operation targeted elderly Medicare Advantage beneficiaries and pressured them into accepting braces they did not need or want — equipment that was then billed to their plans regardless of medical necessity. Kochen was also convicted of health care kickback counts, part of the machinery that keeps this kind of fraud moving: paying to generate the patient contacts and orders that turn into billable claims.
Brace schemes like this one follow a familiar script. A call center reaches large numbers of older adults, a sales pitch or a signature nudges them toward “free” equipment, and the paperwork needed to bill an insurer follows. The braces themselves are cheap relative to what the plans are charged, and the volume is where the money is — millions of dollars in claims assembled one phone call at a time…