Kansas CEO Sentenced to 19 Years for Medicare Fraud Scheming
Key Summary
A Kansas businessman has been sentenced to 19 years in prison for running a massive Medicare fraud scheme that defrauded the US government of over $1 billion. The scheme involved generating false medical orders to sell unneeded orthotics to Medicare beneficiaries, with co-conspirators receiving kickbacks for the orders. The scheme was dismantled by the US Department of Justice, with the CEO of the company at the center of the scheme now facing accountability.
Scheme Overview
Federal prosecutors have secured a 19-year prison sentence against a Kansas businessman who operated an online platform that generated false medical orders to defraud Medicare.
Key Players
Brett Blackman, 43, of Johnson County, Kansas, was convicted after a 23-day trial on charges including wire fraud, conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks, and conspiracy to defraud the United States and to make false statements in connection with health care matters.
Scheme Details
Blackman owned HealthSplash, which acquired the DMERx platform in 2017, and his co-defendant Gary Cox was sentenced to 15 years in December 2025.
The platform connected suppliers with doctors who signed orders for unneeded braces without examining patients.
Financial Impact
The DME suppliers and pharmacies that paid illegal kickbacks for the orders submitted more than $1 billion in claims to Medicare and other insurers, which paid out more than $450 million.
Conspirators
Blackman and his co-conspirators hid the scheme through sham contracts and altered doctors’ orders to evade Medicare audits, including by removing references to telemedicine.
Beneficiaries
The scheme resulted in fraudulent Medicare billing for orthotic braces for more than 346,000 beneficiaries.
Quotes
Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division said, “The Department of Justice and our agency partners dismantled one of the largest telemedicine fraud schemes ever, and yesterday’s lengthy prison sentence holds the orchestrator of that scheme accountable. ”