A Geneva, Ill., man was sentenced in federal court in Boston for a fraud scheme to defraud Medicare of over $2 million by submitting claims for durable medical equipment (DME) that was medically unnecessary, not wanted by the Medicare beneficiaries and tainted by kickbacks. Kartik Bhatia, 36, was sentenced to two years in prison. Bhatia worked with Raju Sharma, and other co-conspirators to own and operate a DME company that paid telemarketing companies for DME orders for orthotics such as ankle, wrist, knee and back braces. Often, the Medicare beneficiaries did not need or want the braces the defendants shipped them and, the doctors whose signatures appeared on these DME orders often did not treat these beneficiaries and did not prescribe the DME. After the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a payment suspension to Bhatia’s DME company, Bhatia simply opened a new DME company that engaged in the same conduct.