A patient recruiter for a Houston-based durable medical equipment company is the latest to be convicted in court for a scheme in which Medicare was billed for wheelchairs supposedly damaged in a hurricane.
Marion Beverly Metoyer was convicted last week by a Houston federal jury of healthcare fraud related to a power wheelchair fraud scheme, the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services and the FBI announced.
After a four-day trial, Metoyer, 57, of Dayton, Texas, was convicted on one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, three counts of healthcare fraud, one count of conspiring to receive illegal kickbacks for referring Medicare beneficiaries and two counts of receiving illegal kickbacks for referring Medicare beneficiaries.
At sentencing, Metoyer faces maximum penalties of 10 years in prison for the healtcare fraud conspiracy; 10 years in prison for committing healthcare fraud; five years in prison for conspiring to receive illegal kickbacks for referring Medicare beneficiaries; and five years in prison for receiving an illegal kickback for referring a Medicare beneficiary. A sentencing date has not been set.
According to evidence presented at trial, Metoyer worked for Luant & Odera, a Houston-area DME company doing business as Tonni Medical Equipment & Supplies. Investigators said Metoyer was paid kickbacks by Luant's owner and operator, Helen Etinfoh, in exchange for providing beneficiaries in whose names bills could be submitted to Medicare.
Investigators said Etinfoh and others submitted false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for medically unnecessary DME, including power wheelchairs, wheelchair accessories and motorized scooters. They said Luant billed Medicare under a special code that designated the power wheelchairs as replacements for wheelchairs lost during hurricanes that hit the Houston area in fall 2008.
During the trial, some beneficiaries testified that they didn't even have a power wheelchair before receiving one provided by Luant. They also testified that recruiters whom they had never met, including Metoyer, came to their homes and offered them free power wheelchairs in exchange for their Medicare information. The power wheelchairs were often billed to Medicare at more than $6,000 per chair.
Etinfoh was convicted by a federal jury of healthcare fraud in April 2010 and was sentenced to 41 months in prison. Paula Whitfield, a patient recruiter for Luant, was also convicted by a federal jury in April 2010 and was sentenced to 21 months in prison.
Melvin Barnes, Johnnie Lee Andrews and Monica Rene Perry, each patient recruiters for Luant, pled guilty to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and are awaiting sentencing.