A Georgia woman has admitted taking part in a nationwide telemedicine kickback scheme that led to fraudulent Medicare reimbursements for durable medical equipment and genetic testing. Robin Darnell, known to some of her co-conspirators as “Nurse Robin,” 57, of Dallas, Ga., pleaded guilty in US District Court to an Information charging her with one count of Conspiracy. As described in court documents and testimony, Darnell admitted that from June 2018 through September 2020, she and other conspirators took part in a nationwide telemedicine kickback scheme in which she recruited physicians and other medical professionals to sign orders for durable medical equipment and genetic testing. Darnell claimed to have a team of nurses who would contact patients to conduct exams via telemedicine on behalf of the physicians, in exchange for the healthcare professionals ordering medical equipment and expensive genetic testing for those patients. In fact, Darnell had no such team of nurses, despite claiming otherwise to the physicians she recruited. Darnell processed thousands of orders, which Darnell knew contained medical histories, conditions, diagnoses, or examinations that Darnell knew were false. Darnell’s conspirators then used these orders to bill Medicare for thousands of dollars each. Medicare beneficiaries were located in the Southern District of Georgia and elsewhere.
