Two charged in $109M brace scheme
By HME News Staff
Updated 8:32 AM CST, Fri January 22, 2021
BOSTON – Two women have pleaded guilty to charges they participated in a scam to defraud Medicare of more than $109 million by filing false claims for orthotic braces. Jessica Jones, 30, of Louisville Colo., and Elizabeth Putulin, 30, of Coconut Creek, Fla., who have each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, conspired with their employer, Juan Camilo Perez Buitrago, to submit more than $109 million in false and fraudulent claims for DME, such as arm, back, knee and shoulder braces, according to the Department of Justice. Perez in October pleaded guilty to health care fraud and paying kickbacks in connection with a federal health care program. Jones and Putulin are charged with helping Perez submit false and fraudulent Medicare claims by establishing shell companies in more than a dozen different states, including Massachusetts. They purchased Medicare patient data from foreign and domestic call centers that targeted elderly patients and instructed call centers to contact the Medicare beneficiaries with an offer of ankle, arm, back, knee and/or shoulder braces “at little to no cost.” Jones and Putulin, who are scheduled to be sentenced on May 19, face up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. In 2019, federal agencies launched a nationwide takedown, “Operation Brace Yourself,” on a $1.2 billion fraud scheme involving medically unnecessary braces.
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