PROVIDENCE, R.I. — An Illinois man was sentenced Friday by a federal judge in Rhode Island to more than three years in prison for shipping unwanted penis enlargers to diabetes patients as part of a fraud scheme that prosecutors say bilked $2.2 million from Medicare over four years.
Gary Winner, 50, of Wheeling, Ill., must also forfeit more than $2.2 million that prosecutors say Medicare lost because of the plot.
U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith also ordered Winner to pay a $12,500 fine and serve three years of supervised release following his prison sentence.
Winner purchased penis enlargers for an average of $26 each from online sex shops and then repackaged and shipped them to patients with information claiming the so-called “erectile pumps” helped “bladder control, urinary flow and prostate comfort.”
Winner then charged Medicare an average of $284 each for a total of $370,305, authorities said.
In charging Medicare, Winner claimed the devices treated erectile dysfunction, prosecutors said. Medicare reimburses for products treating organic impotence and erectile dysfunction and requires the devices be “medically necessary” and prescribed by a physician, prosecutors said. The erectile pumps shipped by Winner served “no medical purpose,” they said.
Winner is accused of swindling another $1.8 million by seeking reimbursement for arthritic packages he claimed Medicare beneficiaries and their physicians ordered.
When employees confronted Winner about sending out supplies regardless of need, authorities allege he responded: “It doesn’t cost the client anything as the government is paying for it, and that the government would just print more money, so order more.” Prosecutors also say he told patients inquiring about items they didn’t order to “put them under the sink.”
Prosecutors also alleged Winner waived copayments for Medicare patients, which the program prohibits. By doing this, Winner induced beneficiaries to accept products they had not ordered and not report the fraudulent billing to Medicare, prosecutors said.
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