Jay Clayton, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Alan Swiss was sentenced to 42 months in prison for participating in a multimillion-dollar conspiracy to defraud Medicare. From approximately 2016 through April 2019, Swiss operated a call center named Tropical Medical Marketing, Inc., which cold-called Medicare beneficiaries and used their personal and medical information without the beneficiaries’ knowledge or consent, to prepare prescriptions for durable medical equipment (“DME”). Swiss then sold these DME prescriptions to co-conspirators who illegally obtained purported signatures or “authorizations” of healthcare providers, so that fraudulent claims could be submitted to Medicare for reimbursement.
From approximately 2017 through April 2019, Swiss also operated two DME supply companies: Modern Medical Equipment, Inc., which Swiss used primarily to bill Medicare directly under Medicare Part B, and A&E Medical, Inc., which Swiss used primarily to bill private insurance companies under Medicare Part C, also known as “Medicare Advantage.” In addition to the prison term, Swiss, 52, of West Palm Beach County, Florida, was sentenced to three years of supervised released. Swiss was also ordered to forfeit $6,650,929.76 and pay Medicare restitution in the amount of $6,650,929.76.