WASHINGTON – The owner of multiple durable medical equipment (DME) companies that operated in Louisiana was sentenced today to serve 180 months in prison for his role in multiple Medicare fraud schemes involving fraudulent claims and illegal kickback payments for unnecessary DME, announced the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the FBI and the Louisiana State Attorney General’s Office.
Henry Lamont Jones, 37, of Prairieville, La., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge James J. Brady of the Middle District of Louisiana. In addition to his prison term, Jones was sentenced to serve three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $13,397,759 in restitution, jointly and severally with convicted co-defendants.
Jones, along with his ex-wife, Chikenna D. Jones, at various times operated McKenzie Healthcare Solutions Inc., and owned and operated Healthcare 1 LLC, Lifeline Healthcare Services Inc., Medical 1 Patient Services Inc. and Rose Medical Equipment Inc., Louisiana-based companies that fraudulently billed medical equipment to the Medicare program from 2004 to 2010. Jones had also worked as a patient recruiter for Unique Health Solution Inc. For his involvement with Unique, Jones, along with co-defendants Nnanta “Felix” Ngari, Sofjan M. Lamid and Ernest Payne, was convicted of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States and to pay or receive health care kickbacks after a jury trial in August 2011. Henry Jones and Chikenna Jones were convicted of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States and to pay or receive health care kickbacks after a jury trial in November 2011 for their role in the operation of McKenzie Healthcare Solutions Inc., and Jones pleaded guilty to Medicare fraud charges against him relating to the remaining companies in advance of a trial scheduled for February 2012.
In operating the various DME companies, Jones fraudulently billed the Medicare program for medical equipment that either was not medically necessary or not provided. Jones hired patient recruiters to obtain Medicare beneficiary information and prescriptions for medical equipment such as leg braces, arm braces, power wheel chairs and wheel chair accessories. These prescriptions were then used to submit fraudulent claims to the Medicare program.
According to court documents, during the period when Jones was operating Healthcare 1, Lifeline Healthcare Services, Medical 1 Patient Services, Rose Medical Equipment and McKenzie Healthcare Solutions, these companies submitted more than $22.5 million in fraudulent claims to the Medicare program. During the period of time when Jones was a patient recruiter for Unique Medical Solution, the company submitted more than $4.5 million in fraudulent claims to the Medicare program.
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