Software CEO Gets 19 Years for $1B Healthcare Fraud Scheme
Brett Blackman, owner and CEO of healthcare software company HealthSplash, was sentenced Oct. 14 to 19 years in prison for a scheme that fraudulently billed Medicare and other federal healthcare programs more than $1 billion for medically unnecessary durable medical equipment. Blackman's company acquired an internet platform that generated fraudulent physicians' orders, connecting pharmacies, equipment suppliers and marketers with telemedicine companies that paid illegal kickbacks. Telemedicine physicians signed orders for orthotic braces with little or no patient interaction, with Medicare billed for braces for more than 346,000 beneficiaries. Suppliers and pharmacies involved received more than $450 million in payments; his co-defendant Gary Cox, CEO of DMERx, was sentenced in December 2025 to 15 years and ordered to pay over $452 million in restitution.