A federal jury has convicted a 57-year-old Gainesville woman who owned and managed durable medical equipment companies at the center of a scheme that submitted more than $8.6 million in fraudulent Medicare claims for orthotic braces. Sophie Dufort now faces up to 20 years in prison for conspiring to commit health care and wire fraud, among other charges tied to a years-long operation that prosecutors say relied on fake prescriptions, paid-off practitioners, and braces shipped to people who never asked for them.
Fake Prescriptions and High-Pressure Calls Fueled the Scheme
According to cw34.com, Dufort conspired with Paula Pirone, a 70-year-old from Ocala, and others to bill Medicare for orthotic braces using fake doctors’ prescriptions, as reported by News4JAX. Prosecutors said the group bought prescriptions from marketing companies that used high-pressure calls to obtain Medicare beneficiaries’ information, according to the same cw34.com report. Some of those prescriptions were signed by medical practitioners who had never evaluated the patients, while others were forged using doctors’ stolen credentials, trial evidence showed.
Dufort managed several other durable medical equipment companies beyond the one that bore her name, per News4JAX’s account of the case. The companies shipped braces to Medicare beneficiaries and billed the federal program even for equipment that recipients did not want or need and had not been prescribed following an actual doctor’s examination, prosecutors said.
Patients Told to Toss or Pass Along Unwanted Braces
When beneficiaries complained or tried to return the braces, prosecutors said the group instructed them to simply discard the devices or pass them along to someone else. That tactic, according to the same reporting, allowed the group to avoid repaying Medicare for the fraudulent claims even after recipients made clear they never wanted the equipment in the first place.
The scheme carried real health risks beyond the financial fraud. A medical expert testified at trial that certain combinations of braces could be very dangerous for older Medicare patients, a detail cw34.com included in its coverage of the verdict.
Jury Convicts on Multiple Fraud and Kickback Counts
The jury convicted Dufort of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, two counts of health care fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and offering and paying illegal kickbacks, cw34.com reported. The charges stack up to steep potential penalties: Dufort faces up to 20 years in prison for the health care and wire fraud conspiracy alone, with additional exposure of up to 10 years for each health care fraud and kickback count and up to five years for conspiring to defraud the United States, per the outlet’s account.
Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for January 2027, according to cw34.com, though the case file reviewed for this story did not specify an exact date for that hearing or for the conviction itself.
Part of a Broader Pattern in Orthotic Brace Fraud
Dufort’s case is not an isolated one. A federal jury separately convicted a New Jersey doctor for causing the submission of more than $5.4 million in fraudulent Medicare claims for orthotic braces ordered through a telemarketing scheme, according to the FBI. Federal regulators have also flagged the broader vulnerability: the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General found that Medicare may remain vulnerable to fraud, waste and abuse tied to off-the-shelf orthotic braces, including cases where providers ordered braces for enrollees with no history of a treating relationship, according to the HHS Office of Inspector General. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has moved to bar 11 medical supply companies tied to more than $3.4 billion in suspected fraudulent billing from receiving future Medicare Advantage payments, per the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
