WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) — A Johnson County, Kansas, businessman was sentenced to 19 years in prison for running one of the largest telemedicine fraud schemes ever, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday. One that billed Medicare and other federal programs more than $1 billion.
Federal prosecutors said Brett Blackman, 43, owned and operated HealthSplash, which acquired Power Mobility Doctor Rx, LLC, known as DMERx, in September 2017. DMERx was an internet-based platform that generated false doctors’ orders for durable medical equipment and prescriptions for other items.
According to evidence presented at trial, Blackman and his co-conspirators targeted hundreds of thousands of Medicare beneficiaries across the U.S. to get them to accept medically unnecessary orthotic braces and other items. Then, they arranged for telemedicine doctors to sign bogus prescription orders so co-conspirators could bill Medicare…