Durable Medical Equipment Company’s Owner To Prison For Medicare Fraud And Kickback Scheme

R&V Medical Supplies, LLC, located in Philadelphia, was a supplier of durable medical equipment. In thinking about how to develop business, the company’s owner, Robert Saul, and his wife, Sheila, came up with a plan. But, it was illegal. They decided to pay kickbacks to various people—most of whom worked in physician offices, social service, or health care agencies—in exchange for the personal identifying information of Medicare beneficiaries. The kickback amounts were based on the amounts and types of durable medical equipment (“DME”) ordered for each particular beneficiary, with power wheelchairs garnering the highest kickback payments, and usually were not paid until R&V was reimbursed by the health care benefit program. 

Now, Saul has been sentenced to 66 months in prison for Medicare fraud and the kickback scheme. Saul previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy, 48 counts of health care fraud, six counts of mail fraud, 47 counts of paying illegal kickbacks, and three counts of obstruction of justice. In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Court Judge Gene E. K. Pratter ordered restitution in the amount of $845,000, three years of supervised release for Saul to include 100 hours of community service per year, a fine of $10,000 and a special assessment of $10,500. The company was sentenced to five years’ probation, a fine of $8,000, and a special assessment of $42,000.
 
Saul and R&V admitted to submitting at least $845,000 in fraudulent claims for reimbursement for DME.
 
In addition to developing business through the payment of kickbacks to outside referral sources, Saul reviewed R&V’s files and ordered additional DME—without regard for medical necessity—for patients whom R&V had previously supplied. At the request of Saul, employees of R&V drew up physician orders, product descriptions, letters of medical necessity, and face-to-face examination pages, and sometimes forged physician signatures on those documents.
 
Saul also attempted to confuse beneficiaries as to the origin of the DME ordered on their behalf by falsely telling them, among other things, that the City of Philadelphia was giving out free medical supplies that they were qualified to receive, or that their physicians had approved them for DME at no cost to the patient. Saul also instructed R&V’s employees to lie to federal agents if questioned about the illegal kickbacks and forgeries.
 
Saul’s co-defendants, including Sheila Saul, have also pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.