NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A 63-year-old New Orleans woman has been sentenced to two years and eight months in prison for her part in a $3.2 million Medicare fraud and kickback scheme.
U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt also ordered Sandra Parkman to pay $277,000 in restitution, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
She was convicted in November and sentenced Wednesday in a five-year scheme to supply power wheelchairs and other durable medical equipment to people who didn’t need it.
Evidence showed that Parkman got more than $47,000 in kickbacks from equipment supply company owner Tracy Richardson Brown, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Brown was convicted in 2016 and sentenced to six years and eight months in prison. Evidence showed she caused Medicare to pay more than $3.2 million for unnecessary equipment from 2004 to 2009, based on illegal referrals.
Parkman provided information about Medicare beneficiaries and got doctors to sign order forms for the unnecessary equipment, according to the statement.
She was convicted on two counts of conspiracy, two of health care fraud and five of receiving health care kickbacks.
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