On September 2, 2020, a Springfield woman who owned several durable medical equipment stores in Oregon was sentenced to federal prison for defrauding six health insurance plans of approximately $1.3 million and for evading $99,000 in federal income taxes. Saffron Gustafson, 43, was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison and three years’ supervised release. Gustafson was also ordered to pay more than $1.3 million in restitution to the victim insurance plans. According to court documents, between June 2013 and August 2017, Gustafson owned and operated Saffron’s Specialized Medical, a durable medical equipment company with retail stores in Portland, Springfield, and Salem, Oregon and in Vancouver, Washington. Gustafson’s stores supplied customized compression garments to patients with circulatory medical conditions.
To defraud health insurance plans, Gustafson submitted bills requesting payment amounts inflated by 600% or more. To support these false billings, Gustafson, and employees acting at her direction, fabricated invoices from her wholesaler. Gustafson and her employees destroyed the genuine wholesaler invoices so insurance companies could not review them during audits. Gustafson also evaded $99,606 in income taxes she owed for 2015 by falsifying records and diverting profits from her company to pay various personal expenses, including paying off the mortgage on her parents’ rental property and paying her psychic.
