Gov’t charges two in $7.8M scheme 

NASHVILLE – The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee has charged Tache “Gabe” Georgescu, 45, and Natalia Georgescu, 38, both of Laguna Niguel, Calif., owners and operators of now defunct Lowry Medical Supply, Inc., in Nashville with conspiracy to commit health care fraud and paying illegal kickbacks. According to the charging document, in November 2017, the Georgescus purchased Lowry Medical, and in 2018, they purchased three other DME companies located in Florida, but which were operated interchangeably with Nashville-based Lowry Medical, including Medpros Associates LLC, Alliance DME LLC and AYMS LLC., all of which are also now defunct. The charging document alleges the Georgescus paid illegal kickbacks and bribes in exchange for the referral of Medicare beneficiaries by medical professionals, working with fraudulent telemedicine companies, for back, shoulder, wrist, and knee braces that are medically unnecessary. Some of the charges concern luring Medicare beneficiaries, who were elderly or suffering from dementia, into a criminal scheme where the Georgescus mailed orthotic braces that these beneficiaries never asked for, never wanted and never needed. They then billed Medicare for the cost of the orthotic braces. In the summer of 2018, a Medicare accrediting agency advised the Georgescus that Lowry Medical was violating Medicare rules in many ways. In just 17 months, the Georgescus paid so-called marketing companies approximately $7.8 million in illegal kickbacks and bribes in exchange for those marketing companies providing the Georgescus with ready to bill doctors’ orders for orthotic braces for Medicare beneficiaries.  In turn, the Georgescus billed Medicare approximately $30 million for orthotic brace orders during this same period. If convicted, the defendants face up to ten years in prison.