Medicare fraud charges have been filed against six individuals in the continuing operation of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force in Houston, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas Tim Johnson and Daniel R. Levinson, Inspector General of the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), announced today.
In an indictment unsealed today, Bassey Monday Idiong, 30, owner of B.I. Medical Supply LLC, Linda Eteimo Ere Kendabie, 27, an administrative assistant at B.I. Medical, and Modupe Babanumi, 42, a patient recruiter for B.I. Medical, all of whom reside in the Houston area, were each charged with participating in a scheme to submit claims to Medicare for medically unnecessary durable medical equipment (DME). In many instances, the DME was not given to the purported patients. This equipment included so-called "arthritis kits," which consist of sets of orthotic braces that are purportedly used for the treatment of arthritis-related conditions.
The indictment alleges that the defendants caused to be submitted to Medicare more than $840,000 in false and fraudulent claims for the kits at a billing cost of approximately $4,000 per kit. The indictment alleges that in one instance, B.I. Medical billed a kit to Medicare that included two knee braces for a Medicare beneficiary who had only one leg.
Charges were also unsealed yesterday against Ana Quinteros, 28, and Michelle Turner, 42, both of Houston, who were each charged in a superseding indictment with one count of conspiring to defraud Medicare for their participation in a scheme to submit false and fraudulent claims, also for arthritis kits. Four individuals charged in the original indictment of July 2009, Clifford Ubani, Princewill Njoku, Mary Ellis and Rolondae Mitchell-Straughter, were also charged with various healthcare frauds in the superseding indictment. The scheme resulted in approximately $1.1 million in billings to the Medicare program.