The 79-year-old former CEO of a health care software firm was sentenced to 15 years in prison after he was convicted of more than $1 billion in fraud tied to falsely billing Medicare for durable medical equipment and other items.
Gary Cox, who previously lived in Arizona, was convicted in June by a federal jury in Miami. A judge sentenced him last week to what prosecutors had asked for—a lengthy sentence but one that also allowed for his age. He could have faced as much as 20 years.
“Cox and his coconspirators orchestrated one of the largest health care frauds in our nation,” a U.S. Attorney wrote in the sentencing memorandum. “A significant sentence is required to show the seriousness of these crimes. Health care fraud is on the rise nationally.”
Cox led Power Mobility Doctor Rx, which targeted Medicare beneficiaries through misleading mailers, advertisements and phone calls from offshore, the U.S. Department of Justice noted. He and co-conspirators connected pharmacies and durable medical equipment makers with telemedicine companies that would accept kickbacks for signed doctors’ orders, using the online platform his company created.
Cox and his co-conspirators received payments for coordinating these illegal kickback transactions and referring the completed doctors’ orders to the DME suppliers, pharmacies and telemarketers that paid kickbacks and bribes for the orders, the DOJ said in a statement. The scheme defrauded Medicare and other insurance providers.
One of Cox’ co-conspirators, Gregory Schreck, of Kansas, pleaded guilty in February but has not been sentenced. Brett Blackman also pleaded guilty this year. All were indicted in 2023.
The billing scheme was one of many that continue to be perpetrated on insurers, including auto insurance carriers in Florida, New York and other states, in which insurers are billed for unnecessary or unused medical treatments, equipment and medications, insurance attorneys have said. Read more here.
The Cox sentencing memo can be seen here.
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Fraud
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