A South Florida man pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring to buy and sell more than 2.6 million Medicare beneficiary identification numbers, along with other personal identifiers. Charles William McElwee, 36, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to violate the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), Title 42, United States Code, Section 1320a-7b(b)(4). MACRA is a law that makes it illegal to buy, sell, or distribute Medicare beneficiary identification numbers without proper authority. This is one of the first prosecutions brought under MACRA. As part of his plea, McElwee admitted that he and his co-conspirators used “data mining” and “social engineering techniques” to collect Medicare beneficiary information, which McElwee then advertised and sold online. The trafficked information included beneficiary names, addresses, dates of birth, social security numbers, and Medicare beneficiary identification numbers. According to the charges, some of the illicit transactions involved foreign actors, including sellers in the Philippines.
