Jury convicts three in $6.4M scheme
By HME News Staff
Updated 10:23 AM CDT, Wed May 18, 2022
DALLAS – A federal jury here has convicted the owners and operators of four orthic brace suppliers in Texas and Arkansas for a $6.5 million illegal kickback scheme, including violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute. Bruce Stroud, 40, and Bobbi Stroud, 39, husband and wife and residents of Prosper, Texas, and Kenric Griffin, 52, of Frisco, Texas, jointly owned and operated New Horizons Durable Medical Equipment, Striffin Medical Supply, 4B Ortho Supply and Grace Professional DME, according to court documents and evidence presented at trial. The evidence showed that between January 2017 and April 2019, the Strouds and Griffin, through their companies, caused approximately $12.5 million to be billed in claims to Medicare for unnecessary braces based on brace orders received in exchange for illegal kickbacks. Medicare paid the defendants approximately $6.5 million for those claims. The defendants concealed the scheme by entering into numerous sham agreements with purported marketing companies that characterized the illegal payments for doctor orders as “marketing” expenses. The Strouds and Griffin were convicted of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and to offer and pay illegal health care kickbacks, and seven violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute. The defendants are all scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 7, with each defendant facing a total of up to 55 years in prison.
Comments