Health Care Software CEO Brett Blackman Sentenced to 19 Years in $1B Medicare Fraud Scheme
A Kansas CEO and owner of an internet platform was sentenced on October 14 to 19 years in prison for his role in operating a platform that generated false doctors' orders and prescriptions used to bill Medicare and other federal health care benefit programs more than $1 billion, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Brett Blackman, 43, of Johnson County, Kansas, owned, controlled and served as CEO of HealthSplash, which acquired Power Mobility Doctor Rx, LLC (DMERx) in September 2017. DMERx was an internet-based platform that generated false and fraudulent doctors' orders for durable medical equipment and prescriptions for other items. Blackman and his co-conspirators connected pharmacies, equipment suppliers and marketers with telemedicine companies that accepted illegal kickbacks and bribes in exchange for signed doctors' orders, and took a cut of the referral fees themselves.
The conspirators aggressively targeted hundreds of thousands of Medicare beneficiaries through foreign call centers, misleading mailers and television advertising, pressing them to accept medically unnecessary orthotic braces, pain creams and other items. The doctors who signed the orders were paid to do so without any meaningful interaction with the beneficiaries, and in some cases with no interaction at all. Testimony from an undercover agent who posed as a beneficiary walked through the pipeline: a foreign call center pushed the agent to accept multiple braces, and a doctor then signed an order through DMERx claiming to have performed tests that can only be done in person, even though the doctor never spoke with the "patient."
The suppliers and pharmacies billed Medicare and other insurers more than $1 billion and were paid more than $450 million. Medicare was billed for orthotic braces for more than 346,000 beneficiaries, an average of four braces per beneficiary; more than 1,200 beneficiaries were billed for at least 21 orthotics prescribed through the platform.
After a 23-day jury trial ending in April 2026, Blackman was convicted of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, conspiracy to pay and receive health care kickbacks, and conspiracy to defraud the United States and make false statements in connection with health care matters. His restitution and forfeiture obligations will be determined by the court at a later date. His co-defendant, Gary Cox, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in December 2025.
Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department's National Fraud Enforcement Division said the department and its partners dismantled one of the largest telemedicine fraud schemes ever. The case was investigated by the HHS Office of Inspector General, the FBI, the VA Office of Inspector General and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, news release issued October 15.
Source: 美国司法部公共事务办公室
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 美国卫生与公众服务部总部休伯特·汉弗莱大楼 / The Hubert H. Humphrey Building, headquarters of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C. Photo: Gunnar Klack, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
