Company billed for $14,000 wheelchairs, handed out walkers
By: Scott McCabe
Examiner Staff Writer
November 3, 2009
The head of a now-defunct D.C. medical supplies company has been indicted for health care fraud and is accused of falsely billing the government for hundreds of thousands of dollars for deluxe power scooters or high-end wheelchairs while giving Medicaid recipients cheaper wheelchairs or walkers.
A federal grand jury indicted Donna Carney-Barry of Northwest Washington on five counts of health care fraud. She faces more than 20 years in prison.
Carney-Barry was the head of Doors of Hope Medical Supplies, a short-lived company that sold canes, walkers, hospital beds and wheelchairs. It maintained offices on the first floor of the Greater Southeast Hospital in D.C.
She is accused of billing the system by "upcoding," providing a patient a cheaper piece of equipment, then billing Medicaid for a higher-priced item.
Carney-Barry could not be reached Monday.
Prosecutors said from 2003 to 2005, Doors of Hope submitted about $575,000 in Medicaid claims to the District of Columbia. More than half the claims were for power wheelchairs.
Prosecutors said Carney-Barry turned in fraudulent claims that contained bogus diagnoses of the patients using the names of actual area doctors.
The bills falsely claimed that a patient, for example, required a high-end electric wheelchair, such as the Jazzy 1420 power wheelchair for $14,000 or the Cruiser Bariatric Powerbase Chair for $11,000. Instead of ordering the high-end wheelchair, Carney-Barry would provide a walker or much cheaper piece of equipment, charging documents said.
The indictment was the result of a federal investigation started more than two years ago that looked into fraud involving the city's managed-care contracts.
Prosecutors said the District's contractor, Affiliated Computer Services, approved more than $550,000 in payments to Doors of Hope. Some were approved even though the bills had not been signed by the patient's doctor, according to charging documents.
Other payments were approved for scooters even though they were specifically not covered by Medicaid, according to court documents.
