American Fork medical supply company agrees to pay $1.6 million after Medicare fraud allegations

Federal prosecutors have reached a settlement for $1.6 million with an American Fork telemarketing company over accusations of Medicare fraud.

The company, Western Medical Group, and its owners, Benjamin D. George and Jody C. Rookstool, have agreed to pay $1,634,844 to settle allegations under the False Claims Act, U.S. Attorney for Utah John W. Huber announced Tuesday.

Western Medical — doing business under that name and also as Arizona Medical and Senior First Medical, among others — were accused of using a telemarketing scheme to sell knee and back braces to Medicare beneficiaries. The federal government argued that Western Medical violated Medicare’s ban on telephone solicitation to sell beneficiaries products already covered under Medicare.

The allegations were first made by company whistleblowers in December 2013. The court filings that detailed those allegations included telemarketing scripts that promised all costs would be paid by Medicare, and that the company would handle all the paperwork.

Read more: https://www.sltrib.com/news/2018/12/11/american-fork-medical/