Former NFL player convicted of health care fraud

WASHINGTON – A federal jury in the Middle District of Florida has convicted Joel Rufus French, of Armory, Miss., the owner of a marketing company and a former NFL player, for his role in a yearslong scheme to bilk Medicare and the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA) out of nearly $200 million by selling patient information and sham doctor orders for orthotic braces that patients did not want or need. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, French worked with overseas call centers that pressured elderly Americans to provide their personal and health insurance information and agree to accept medically unnecessary orthotic braces. Some of the individuals who agreed to the braces suffered from Alzheimer’s and dementia. French paid sham telemedicine companies to obtain signed orders from doctors and nurse practitioners who never examined, and often never even spoke to, the patients. He sold the orders to marketers and medical supply companies, which then submitted claims to Medicare. French also defrauded Medicare and CHAMPVA by billing the programs for orthotic braces through eight durable medical equipment (DME) supply companies that he owned and managed, using false documents to hide his connection to the companies from Medicare. French faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, 10 years in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering, and five years in prison for conspiracy to defraud the United States.  

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