Ex-Ole Miss Tight End Convicted in $200 Million Scam Targeting Seniors and Veterans
A former star tight end for the Ole Miss Rebels, who had a brief NFL career, was convicted of bilking the federal government out of nearly $200 million through a health insurance billing scam. The scam targeted elderly patients and veterans and involved sham doctors’ orders for braces that were not medically necessary.
“This defendant’s conduct was egregious: He targeted seniors suffering from Alzheimer’s and dementia and billed Medicare for orthotic braces for deceased patients and amputees,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
A federal jury in Florida convicted 47-year-old Joel Rufus French of the crimes, which defrauded Medicare and the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA) out of millions. French was signed by the Seattle Seahawks and the Green Bay Packers in the late 90s but did not end up playing. Instead, he started medical supply and marketing companies.
Scheme Ran Through Call Centers
According to prosecutors, French worked with call centers overseas to pressure elderly victims for personal and insurance information, and to accept braces that were not medically necessary. Some of these patients had Alzheimer’s and dementia, and if they refused, the call center employees would alter the recordings to make it seem like they had agreed.
French also paid sham telemedicine companies to obtain signed orders from doctors and nurse practitioners who never examined the patients, selling the orders to marketers and medical supply companies, which then submitted claims to Medicare.
“This scheme built on sham operations exploited seniors and corrupted the federal health care system. By falsifying doctors’ orders and selling patient information, the defendant sought to turn Medicare into their own personal ATM machine,” said Acting Deputy Inspector General for Investigations Scott J. Lampert of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG).
In addition, French used fake documents to hide his role in owning and managing the eight medical supply companies. There was also evidence presented at trial that showed the companies billed the government on behalf of dead beneficiaries and on behalf of amputees who were prescribed braces for limbs they no longer had.
Prosecutors say French also drove from Mississippi to Orlando to pay accomplices $10,000 in cash, for selling beneficiaries personal and insurance information.
French’s lawyer says his client trusted the “wrong people” to promote his business and will appeal.
No sentencing date has been set.
HHS-OIG, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General (VA-OIG) investigated the case.