Sleep lab operator pleads guilty to fraud
By HME News Staff
Updated 9:58 AM CDT, Wed September 20, 2023
FRESNO, Calif. — Travis Gober, who owned VIP Sleep Center, has pleaded guilty to health care fraud and aggravated identity theft charges for submitting more than $1 million in fraudulent claims for sleep studies to Medicare, U.S. Attorney Phillip Talbert has announced. From October 2019 through September 2021, Gober caused the VIP Sleep Center to submit thousands of claims to Medicare for sleep studies that were not actually performed on patients. The claims also falsely stated that the patients had been referred for the sleep studies by physicians with whom Gober had previously worked. This was done because Medicare will not pay for a sleep study unless the patient was referred by a physician. The Office of Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the California Department of Health Care Services participated in the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Barton is prosecuting the case. Gober is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 16. He faces a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in prison for the health care fraud conviction, and an additional, mandatory two years in prison for the identity theft conviction.
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