ZAGREB , CROATIA - 13 AUGUST 2015 - official ball of the NFL football league , the Duke on grass turf background
A federal jury in Florida has convicted Joel Rufus French, a former NFL player and Ole Miss tight end, of bilking Medicare out of nearly $200 million by selling patient information and sham doctors' orders for orthotic braces that patients did not want or need.
French, 47, of Amory, Mississippi, "worked with overseas call centers that pressured elderly Americans to provide their personal and health insurance information and agree to accept medically unnecessary orthotic braces," the Justice Department said Feb. 3 in a statement.
Some of the individuals who agreed to the braces suffered from Alzheimer's and dementia, according to DOJ, and "in certain instances, the call centers altered call recordings to make it seem like Medicare patients agreed to the braces when they did not."
The jury convicted French of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to offer, pay, solicit and receive kickbacks.
French faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, 10 years for conspiracy to commit money laundering, and five years for conspiracy to defraud the United States. A sentencing date has not been set.
French played briefly for the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks and earlier was an all-American tight end at the University of Mississippi.
The Daily Business Review reported that French's attorney, Sean Buckley, told the publication that French plans to appeal the verdict. French trusted the "wrong people" to promote his business, Buckley said.
"This defendant's conduct was egregious: he targeted seniors suffering from Alzheimer's and dementia and billed Medicare for orthotic braces for deceased patients and amputees," said A. Tysen Duva, an assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's Criminal Division. "These schemes undermine the integrity of our health care system by robbing taxpayer-funded programs meant for legitimate medical care. Today's verdict sends a clear message: the Criminal Division will aggressively prosecute those who prey on our nation's seniors and veterans to steal from Medicare."
French, according to DOJ, "paid sham telemedicine companies to obtain signed orders from doctors and nurse practitioners who never examined, and often never even spoke to, the patients."
He sold the orders to marketers and medical supply companies, which then submitted claims to Medicare.
French also defrauded the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs, the health care program for spouses and children of veterans, "by billing the programs for orthotic braces through eight durable medical equipment supply companies that he owned and managed, using false documents to hide his connection to the companies from Medicare," DOJ said.
The evidence at trial showed that French and his co-conspirators caused Medicare to be billed for braces for amputees for limbs they did not have and for deceased beneficiaries, the DOJ statement says.
French, DOJ said, "also withdrew approximately $225,000 in cash from a bank in Mississippi, over $10,000 of which was placed in a bag and driven to Orlando to pay accomplices who sold him beneficiaries' personal and insurance information."
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