Job titles can be a source of confusion, as they are often subjective and open to interpretation, with different companies and industries assigning varying meanings to the same job title. For instance, a Vice President of Healthcare Software and Services could be a senior executive responsible for the strategic direction and operational management of a company’s software and services related to the healthcare industry. Or that title could be used as part of a billion-dollar Medicare fraud scheme! Gregory Schreck, was Vice President of Healthcare Software and Services of DMERx and the only responsibility he had was to generate false doctors’ orders for Medicare beneficiaries. Again, titles can be confusing.
Schreck and his co-conspirators owned, controlled, and operated DMERx, an internet-based platform that generated false and fraudulent doctors’ orders for orthotic braces, pain creams, and other items for these beneficiaries. Schreck connected pharmacies, durable medical equipment (DME) suppliers, and marketers with telemedicine companies that would accept illegal kickbacks and bribes in exchange for signed doctors’ orders that were transmitted using the DMERx platform. The fraudulent doctors’ orders generated by DMERx falsely represented that a doctor had examined and treated the Medicare beneficiaries when, in reality, purported telemedicine companies paid doctors to sign the orders without regard to medical necessity.
The DME suppliers and pharmacies that paid illegal kickbacks in exchange for these doctors’ orders generated through DMERx billed Medicare and other insurers more than $1 billion. Medicare and the insurers paid more than $360 million based on these false and fraudulent claims. Schreck received millions of dollars for coordinating these illegal kickback transactions.
On February 20, 2025, Schreck pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
Great job by the F.B.I. in this case.
Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “Kan. man admits role in billion dollar healthcare fraud scheme” published by JC Post on February 20, 2025.
A Kansas man pleaded guilty Thursday to operating an internet-based platform that generated false doctors’ orders to defraud Medicare and other federal health care benefit programs of more than $1 billion, according to the United State’s Department of Justice.
According to court documents, Gregory Schreck, 50, of Johnson County, admitted that he and his co-conspirators targeted hundreds of thousands of Medicare beneficiaries to provide their personally identifiable information and agree to accept medically unnecessary orthotic braces, pain creams, and other items through misleading mailers, television advertisements, and calls from offshore call centers.
