Furman Alexander Ford was the owner and operator of IAM Healthcare, a business supposedly offering services to group homes located in Wake, Durham, and Johnson Counties. But Ford wasn’t looking to care for the elderly or disabled. Fraudsters don’t “care.” Turns out Ford oversaw a scheme to trick these group homes for client Medicare information. Ford also targeted small community churches by offering food in exchange for Medicare information. That doesn’t seem “churchly.” From December 2018 to February 2020, Ford used the information from these schemes to submit to Medicare more than $500,000 in claims for services never rendered. And instead of care received from IAM Healthcare, 74 elderlies had their identity stolen from IAM Healthcare Fraud.
While in court, facing charges of Medicare fraud, Ford had moved to dismiss the indictment “due to unlawful and outrageous government conduct.” Arguably a good debate, but for Ford a bad one. Because Ford had already proven himself to be capable of unlawful and outrageous conduct since this was not Ford’s first conviction.
As a former New York Life financial advisor, Ford was found guilty in 2021 for mail fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, which resulted in an 11-year prison sentence. In that case, he was accused of misappropriating funds from a 72-year-old Durham client, using $1 million of her money for personal luxuries such as a cruise to the Bahamas and a BMW. The judge denied Ford any appeals and on April 2, 2023 the IAM a Healthcare Fraudster was found guilty of Medicare fraud.
Fabulous job by the Department of Health and Human Services in this investigation.
Today’s Fraud Of The Day is based on article “Former Raleigh investment advisor sentenced to 17 years for Medicare fraud” published by Triangle Business Journal on April 2, 2023
Furman Alexander Ford was sentenced on Thursday for the scheme. Ford, the owner and operator of IAM Healthcare in Raleigh, tricked group homes in Wake, Durham and Johnston counties into providing client Medicare information, prosecutors said. He also targeted small community churches in Bladen County, offering food in exchange for Medicare information, according to court records and evidence presented at trial. He then used the information to submit Medicare claims on behalf of elderly and disabled beneficiaries.
Those clients didn’t receive any services from IAM Healthcare, but Ford was accused of submitting claims anyway, causing more than $500,000 to be billed to Medicare for reimbursement. At least 74 beneficiaries whose information had been “stolen” had their claims submitted for services not rendered, totaling more than $250,000, of which $166,928 was paid to Ford.
