Tecumseh Man Ordered to Serve 51 Months in Prison and Pay Over $4.6 Million in Restitution for Health Care Fraud in Sales of Prosthetics

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OKLAHOMA CITY—Lance E. Faulkner, 46,from Tecumseh, Oklahoma, was sentenced by United States District Judge TimothyD. DeGiusti to serve 51 months in prison for health care fraud in connectionwith sales of prosthetic limbs and components, announced Sanford C. Coats,United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma. In addition, JudgeDeGiusti ordered Faulkner to serve two years of supervised release upon hisrelease from prison, serve 104 hours of community service, and pay$4,667,076.27 in restitution.
Faulkner owned and operated HeartlandOrthotic Prosthetic Lab Inc., d/b/a Faulkner Prosthetic Designs of Oklahoma LLC(“Heartland”), located in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Heartland was in the business ofproviding durable medical equipment (DME), specifically, prosthetic limbs andrelated components. It was alleged that Faulkner billed Medicare and Medicaidfor beneficiaries who did not have a prescription for the prosthetics from alicensed physician or other qualified health care provider. Instead, Faulknersubmitted physician names and identification numbers to Medicare and Medicaideven though many of those physicians had never treated the patients orprescribed the prosthetic limbs. It was also alleged that Faulkner submittedclaims to Medicare and Medicaid for expensive, computerized prosthetic limbs,when the beneficiaries actually received less sophisticated prosthetics or noneat all.
Faulkner pled guilty to committinghealth care fraud on September 9, 2011. The sentencing hearing began on May 17,2012, where Faulkner received the sentence of 51 months in prison, followed bytwo years of supervised release, and was ordered to perform 104 hours ofcommunity service. The hearing regarding the determination of restitution wascontinued until yesterday, where the court ordered Faulkner to pay$4,667,076.27 in restitution.
This case was the result of aninvestigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Officeof Inspector General for the United States Department of Health and HumanServices. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda MaxfieldGreen.