DME Owner Ordered to Pay $6M

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky—A former Kentucky resident was sentenced last week to two years and nine months in federal prison for engaging in a conspiracy to commit health care fraud in connection with durable medical equipment businesses.    

According to court documents, Pedro Reyes, 54, formerly of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, for one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. Reyes, through multiple Kentucky companies, executed a scheme in which he fraudulently billed Medicare for durable medical equipment (orthopedic equipment, to including back, knee and shoulder braces) that was medically unnecessary, unwanted by patients and not prescribed by the patients’ medical providers.

Reyes was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $6,004,916.

“I commend the tenacious work of the HHS-OIG and the prosecution team in this matter,” said U.S. Attorney Michael A. Bennett of the Western District of Kentucky. “Let this case serve as notice to those who plan to cheat the system. You will be identified, aggressively prosecuted, spend time in federal prison and, in the end, pay back your ill-gotten gains.”

There is no parole in the federal system.