A father-and-son team were handed prison sentences today in a San Diego federal court for swindling more than $21 million from Medicare. Anthony Duane Bell Sr., 55, received a 65-month term, while his son, Anthony Duane Bell Jr., 33, got a lighter sentence of 12 months and one day.
The scam involved the Bells’ businesses, Universal Medical Solutions 1 and Universal Medical Solutions 2, which the court found had peddled unnecessary durable medical equipment to unsuspecting Medicare beneficiaries. According to a press release by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California, Bell Sr. pleaded guilty to health care fraud and Bell Jr. to making false statements to a federal officer, complicit in a scheme that sought to bill for equipment with little to no medical need.
The elaborate fraud involved purchasing personal information and supposed doctor's agreements, often conducted remotely and without proper medical examination, indicating the necessity for braces that were, in reality, typically anything but necessary. The elder Bell was also ordered to pay a staggering $21,725,604.56 in restitution and to forfeit $806,375.12 and his luxe El Cajon home, bought with the ill-gotten gains.
"This brazen scheme exploited elderly and disabled Medicare beneficiaries so these defendants could line their own pockets,” said U.S. Attorney Tara K. McGrath. In an aggressive denunciation, Special Agent in Charge Timothy B. DeFrancesca of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG) added, "Those who game the system to take advantage of federal health care programs for personal financial gain do so at the expense of those who rely on these programs, and American taxpayers.”
While Bell Jr. misled the FBI about his involvement, the case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Valerie H. Chu and Christopher M. Alexander, signifying a formidable effort to protect Medicare funds and beneficiaries from such fraudulent activities.
