A Missouri man was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison Oct. 23 for orchestrating a Medicare fraud scheme that unlawfully billed hundreds of millions of dollars for cancer and cardiovascular genetic testing, prosecutors announced last week.
Jamie P. McNamara, 50, of Kansas City, operated several laboratories in Louisiana and Texas that obtained doctors’ orders for genetic tests through telemarketers and call centers using aggressive sales campaigns to persuade Medicare beneficiaries to agree to testing, according to court documents.
Prosecutors said the orders were signed by purported telemedicine physicians who were not the beneficiaries’ treating doctors, did not conduct consultations, and did not follow up after testing.
McNamara paid illegal kickbacks and bribes to obtain the orders and disguised the payments through sham contracts, court records show.
Authorities said McNamara also shifted billing among his laboratories to evade Medicare and law enforcement scrutiny and concealed his ownership and control by falsely listing family members as owners and company representatives on Medicare and other documents.
In about 18 months, the laboratories submitted more than $174 million in claims to Medicare and received more than $55 million in reimbursements, according to court documents.
Prosecutors said the government previously seized several luxury vehicles and more than $7 million from bank accounts tied to McNamara.
While on pretrial release, McNamara violated bond conditions by fleeing from an unrelated arrest and cutting off an ankle monitor, authorities said. He was later detained.
McNamara pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud, officials stated.