Woman arrested for $8.8M fraud scheme
By HME News Staff
Updated 10:18 AM CDT, Tue June 7, 2022
WASHINGTON – A woman was arrested on June 1 in Hampton, Ga., on criminal charges related to her alleged scheme to defraud Medicare by prescribing medically unnecessary DME that was then billed to Medicare. Kateline Lavache, 53, allegedly prescribed medically unnecessary DME for Medicare beneficiaries in exchange for kickbacks and bribes from her co-conspirators, according to an indictment. She allegedly had no prior relationship with the beneficiaries, was not treating them and failed to conduct telemedicine consultations with them. As a result of the prescriptions, her co-conspirators submitted to Medicare about $8.8 million in false and fraudulent claims for medically unnecessary DME, of which Medicare paid more than $4 million. She was paid more than $123,000 in kickbacks and bribes. Lavache has been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, as well as four counts of health care fraud. If convicted, she faces up to 20 years in prison for the conspiracy count and up to 10 years in prison for each health care fraud count.
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