Chiropractor Sentenced to 14 Years in $30M DME Fraud Scheme
Mark Loftis, an Oklahoma chiropractor who owned Back Pain Home Supplies (doing business as EZ Medical Supply), was sentenced to 14 years in prison for a telemedicine-driven fraud scheme that billed Medicare, Tricare and CHAMPVA more than $30 million for unnecessary durable medical equipment. Loftis and co-conspirators concealed the company's true ownership from Medicare, paid over $1 million in kickbacks to marketers and a call center that solicited elderly and disabled beneficiaries' information, and used telemedicine providers who never examined patients to sign off on sham equipment orders. A federal jury convicted him in July following a 12-day trial; he was sentenced October 8 in the Middle District of Florida and ordered to pay over $8 million in restitution and forfeit more than $560,000. The case was brought under the Justice Department's Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program, which has charged more than 6,200 defendants since 2007.