An Ohio doctor has entered a guilty plea after being charged with being part of a healthcare fraud conspiracy that racked up over $14.5 million in false Medicare claims. The physician, Timothy Sutton, age 43, from North Ridgeville, was involved in a scam that issued unnecessary medical orders and then billed them to Medicare, a federal health benefits program aimed primarily at those aged 65 and older. Sutton’s admission came as part of a larger investigation encompassing two telemedicine companies and fraudulent practices across Ohio and Florida.
According to a press release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Ohio, Sutton was associated with Nevada’s Real Time Physicians, LLC, and Florida’s 24 Hour Virtual MD, LLC. These companies supplied pre-completed orders for durable medical equipment (DME) and cancer genetic testing (CGX), which Sutton was meant to review and approve. Documents allege Sutton claimed to have examined patients via telemedicine to justify the need for these services; in reality, no such examinations took place. This revelation has now cast a pall over the legitimacy of telemedicine, particularly in the context of Medicare services.
The conspiracy didn’t end with the fraudulent prescriptions. After Sutton signed off on the equipment and testing, the telemedicine companies would either fulfill the orders themselves or sell them to other entities. The orders, placed without proper medical justification, violated Medicare regulations and federal laws, effectively siphoning funds from the healthcare program…