Former Owner of Local Durable Medical Equipment Company Sentenced to 35 Months in Federal Prison for Defrauding Medicare and Medicaid
Kingsway Medical Systems Inc. was Located in Desoto and Richardson, Texas
| U.S. Attorney’s Office June 26, 2013 |
DALLAS—Philip Odoemena, 60, the former owner/operator of Kingsway Medical Systems Inc. (Kingsway), was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Barbara M. G. Lynn to 35 months in federal prison and was ordered to pay $483,995 in restitution, following his guilty plea in September 2012 to one count of health care fraud. Odoemena has been in custody since his arrest in early May 2012. Today’s announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas.
According to documents filed in the case, from February 2005 to May 2012, Odoemena owned and operated Kingsway, a durable medical equipment (DME) company that was first located in Desoto, Texas, and then in Richardson, Texas. He was approved by both Medicare and Texas Medicaid to provide durable medical equipment, including wheelchairs and accessories, adult incontinence supplies, and enteral nutrition supplies (tube feeding) to Medicare beneficiaries and Medicaid clients.
Odoemena admitted that from May 2007 through March 2012, he ran a scheme to defraud Medicare and Medicaid by submitting fraudulent claims that falsely represented that legitimate and qualifying supplies were provided and that falsely represented the medical necessity of the supplies. In one instance, for example, he billed Medicaid $870 for tube feeding supplies for a Medicaid client, when, in fact, he merely provided that client an oral nutritional supplement. Medicaid paid Kingsway $826 for that claim—funds that Odoemena used for his own personal benefit.
The case was investigated by the FBI, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector General, and the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. To learn more health care fraud, please visit http://stopmedicarefraud.gov
The case was prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian W. Portugal and Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine E. Pfeifle.