A federal jury convicted a Raleigh man on charges of Conspiracy to Commit Healthcare Fraud, Healthcare Fraud, Wire Fraud, and Aggravated Identity Theft on October 19, 2022. According to court records and evidence presented at trial, Furman Alexander Ford, 52 years old, and his co-conspirator Jimmy Guess, who pled guilty on September 16, 2020 to healthcare fraud, conspired in a scheme to defraud Medicare by submitting false claims to Medicare for mental health services that were never provided to Medicare beneficiaries. According to witness testimony and evidence presented at trial, Ford and Guess submitted over 5,000 claims to Medicare, totaling approximately $534,438, for mental health services allegedly provided to approximately 145 beneficiaries between October 2018 and February 2020. Defendant executed several fraud schemes to obtain the beneficiaries’ Medicare information. In one scheme, Ford’s company offered Electronic Health Records conversion and teletherapy counseling to assisted living homes for the elderly and disabled. In another scheme, Ford’s company offered free food in exchange for the Medicare information of low-income elderly parishioners at churches in Bladen County, and by cold calling unsuspecting victims offering telehealth services.
