Rio Grande Valley scooter vendor sentenced in $11.1 million Medicare, Medicaid scam

McALLEN – A federal judge Wednesday handed a biller for a defunct McAllen durable medical equipment business a prison sentence of more than 11 years and ordered him to pay back more than $5 million for his part in a Medicare and Medicaid fraud conspiracy.

Ramon De La Garza, 52, of Mission, was a biller for DME RGV — a company that made $11.1 million worth of fraudulent claims to Medicaid and Medicare — for almost seven years, according to a news release from a spokeswoman with the U.S. District Court for South Texas. The prison sentence will be followed by a three-year term of supervised release.

De La Garza pleaded guilty – along with co-conspirators Marcelo and Carla Herrera – in February, when he admitted to filing fraudulent Medicare and Medicaid claims for more than $9.6 million, which eventually amounted to payments of more than $5.5 million.

Two years of the 11-year sentence was assessed for a charge of aggravated identity theft for using someone else’s identity to bill Medicaid and Medicare for a $5,000 power wheelchair that was never needed, requested, prescribed, ordered or delivered.

More at http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/article_47c35fae-f4d1-11e2-826a-0019bb30f31a.html .

[font color=green]The Herreras declared in court that fraudulent claims made up approximately 85 percent of their business.[/font]