Prosthetics business owner Lance Faulkner, who on September 9, 2011, pleaded guilty to healthcare fraud in connection with sales of prosthetic limbs and components, was sentenced by a federal judge to serve 51 months in prison. He was also sentenced to serve two years of supervised release upon his release from prison, complete 104 hours of community service, and pay $4,667,076.27 in restitution.
Faulkner owned and operated Heartland Orthotic Prosthetic Lab, doing business as Faulkner Prosthetic Designs of Oklahoma, Shawnee. Prosecutors alleged that Faulkner billed Medicare and Medicaid for beneficiaries who did not have a prescription for the prostheses from a licensed physician or other qualified healthcare provider. Instead, Faulkner submitted physician names and identification numbers to Medicare and Medicaid even though many of those physicians had never treated the patients or prescribed the prosthetic limbs. It was also alleged that Faulkner submitted claims to Medicare and Medicaid for expensive, computerized prosthetic limbs, when the beneficiaries actually received less-sophisticated prostheses or none at all.
Faulkner was sentenced on June 12.
