Three people have been sentenced to prison for their roles in a multimillion-dollar Medicare billing scheme. According to court documents, in November 2018, Jeremie Vargas Ramirez, 50, of Vienna, Jordana Lee Arpa, 42, of Vienna, and several other business partners agreed to create Kynetic Medical Group, doing business as NOVA DME, a durable medical equipment (DME) supplier. Ramirez was the de facto owner of NOVA DME and handled the day-to-day business operations, including business development, advertising, marketing, and billing. Arpa and Ramirez agreed that Arpa would be named as President and CEO of NOVA DME to conceal from Medicare that Ramirez was NOVA DME’s true owner. NOVA DME was approved in June 2021 to operate as a Medicare provider based on Arpa’s false statements, and Arpa, on behalf of NOVA DME, acknowledged Medicare’s prohibition on direct solicitation to beneficiaries. Arpa’s false statements facilitated the fraud scheme.
From this scheme, NOVA DME, Ramirez, and Arpa received at least $2,256,787 in fraudulent proceeds from Medicare. Karnes personally profited at least $888,500. Ramirez pled guilty on Jan. 31 to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. On April 18, he was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $2,256,787. Karnes pled guilty on Jan. 31 to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. On May 2, he was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $2,256,787. Arpa pled guilty on Feb. 7 to conspiracy to making false statements relating to healthcare matters. She was sentenced on May 23 to six months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $2,256,787.