The VP of an internet company that generated false doctors’ orders to defraud Medicare and other federal health care benefit programs of more than $1 billion.
According to a DOJ release, Greogory Schreck, VP of DMERx an internet based company got thousands of Medicare beneficiaries to render personal information and to accept medically unnecessary orthotic braces, pain creams and other items. He pleaded guilty today to operating an internet-based platform that generated false doctors’ orders to defraud Medicare and other federal health care benefit programs of more than $1 billion.
According to the DOJ release,he and his co-conspirators targeted hundreds of thousands of Medicare beneficiaries to provide their personally identifiable information and agree to accept medically unnecessary orthotic braces, pain creams, and other items through misleading mailers, television advertisements, and calls from offshore call centers. Schreck and his co-conspirators owned, controlled, and operated DMERx, an internet-based platform that generated false and fraudulent doctors’ orders for orthotic braces, pain creams, and other items for these beneficiaries. Schreck, a vice president of the company that operated DMERx, admitted that he offered to connect pharmacies, durable medical equipment (DME) suppliers, and marketers with telemedicine companies that would accept illegal kickbacks and bribes in exchange for signed doctors’ orders that were transmitted using the DMERx platform. Schreck and his co-conspirators received payments for coordinating these illegal kickback transactions and referring the completed doctors’ orders to the DME suppliers, pharmacies, and telemarketers that paid for them.
The fraudulent doctors’ orders generated by DMERx falsely represented that a doctor had examined and treated the Medicare beneficiaries when, in reality, purported telemedicine companies paid doctors to sign the orders without regard to medical necessity and based only on a brief telephone call with the beneficiary, or sometimes no interaction with the beneficiary at all. The DME suppliers and pharmacies that paid illegal kickbacks in exchange for these doctors’ orders generated through DMERx billed Medicare and other insurers more than $1 billion. Medicare and the insurers paid more than $360 million based on these false and fraudulent claims.
A sentencing hearing will be scheduled at a later date. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Jeff Newman JD MBA, represents whistleblowers nationwide relating to customs and tariff fraud concerning imported Chinese goods as well as corporate whistleblowers in major claims under the False Claims Act (Qui Tam), and SEC, IRS and FINCEN whistleblower programs. He can be reached at Jeff@JeffNewmanLaw.com or at 617-823-3217
