The owner of telemedicine company Video Doctor Network pleaded guilty for his role in what the US Justice Department is calling one of the largest healthcare fraud schemes prosecuted to date in the United States. Lester Stockett, 52, a resident of Colombia, admitted in court that from March 2016 and April 2019, he and other Video Doctor Network executives had transferred more than US$10 million in illegal kickback payments to a bank account in the Dominican Republic. They then moved more than US$9.8 million from that bank account in the Dominican Republic to the bank accounts of AffordADoc in the United States.
On Friday, 6 September 2019, the telemedicine company agreed to pay US$200 million in restitution to the US as part of his plea agreement.
The Justice Department in April had brought charges against 24 defendants including Stockett for their role in a US$424 million conspiracy to defraud Medicare and receive illegal kickbacks.
As part of his guilty plea, Stockett said he and others had solicited and received illegal kickbacks and bribes from patient recruiters, pharmacies and brace suppliers. In exchange, he said he and other Video Doctor Network employees bribed healthcare providers to order medically unnecessary orthotic braces for Medicare beneficiaries.
Stockett’s company allegedly received kickbacks from brace suppliers in exchange for arranging for physicians to order the unnecessary medical equipment, such as back, knee and shoulder braces.
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Modern Health Care
10 September 2019