A Virginia nurse practitioner got slapped with an 18-month prison sentence after pleading guilty in a mega $7.8 million health care scam, federal authorities said. Daphne Jenkins, 64, will also face two years of supervised release, including a year of home confinement, and must cough up nearly $4 million in restitution.
The telemedicine fraud, which ran from December 2018 to April 2020, involved Jenkins signing orders for orthotics and other gear that patients didn't need, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston. Jenkins, apparently without performing any assessments or having contact with the patients, used DocuSign to approve the pre-populated orders – a slick operation facilitated by telemarketers hustling Medicare beneficiaries.
In one extreme example, Jenkins zipped through a 16-page packet, stamping her electronic John Hancock 12 times in just 32 seconds. Another file, a hefty 37 pages, saw her signature scrawled 24 times over in a mere 45 seconds. Once Jenkins electronically signed off, the telemarketers would sell the orders to suppliers, which then billed Medicare for the unnecessary equipment.
Overall, Jenkins' speedy sign-offs led to over $7.8 million in false claims getting submitted to Medicare, according to prosecutors. The Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy; along with officials from the Health and Human Services, the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Department of Labor, and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service brought the charges to light. After the fraudulent paper trail was exposed, Jenkins admitted her role in the conspiracy and will now face the consequences of her crime spree.
