RALEIGH, N.C. – A Raleigh woman pleaded guilty today to Healthcare Fraud.
According to the Criminal Information and evidence summarized in Court, Tanya Parrish Grant, 51, of Raleigh, pled guilty to a health care fraud that she carried out between 2017 and 2021 through two companies she controlled – Carolina Rehab Products, Inc., (CRP) also known as Atlantic Brace, in Raleigh; and Blue File DME, LLC (Blue File), in Dunn. These companies were licensed with Medicare to supply durable medical equipment (DME) to Medicare beneficiaries. DME consists of products such as back, shoulder, knee, and wrist braces.
Grant caused CRP and Blue File to bill Medicare for more than $50 Million between 2014 and 2021, of which Medicare paid Grant more than $17 Million. Grant used these funds to purchase, among other things, a home near Cameron Village in Raleigh; a townhome in Ft. Lauderdale, a Porche, several Land Rovers, and to amass more than a million in cash and investments.
The investigation showed that to generate revenues, Grant was paying companies in India and Pakistan to provide her with lists of Medicare patient names and identifying information. These lists of patients were purportedly derived from call centers overseas that contacted Medicare patients to inquire about their need for DME. Grant then caused her companies to bill Medicare for DME that she purportedly supplied to the patients.
While Grant and her companies were obligated to have written physician orders to support all of her claims to Medicare, the evidence ultimately showed that this was not the case. In many instances, Grant billed Medicare without supporting physician orders, and without shipping products. Even when patients receiving equipment in the mail returned the equipment, Grant did not reimburse Medicare for the equipment. The investigation also showed that Grant’s companies billed Medicare in the names of some 422 deceased individuals. When audited by Medicare contractors, the evidence showed Grant would forge physician orders if no such order existed in her files to support her billings.
The scheme was halted in 2021 when Grant’s home and offices were searched, and her assets described above were seized as forfeitable property.
Grant pleaded guilty to a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1347 and faces a maximum of up to ten years in prison when sentenced later this year.
Michael Easley, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina made the announcement after U.S. District Judge Terrence W. Boyle accepted the plea. The United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney William M. Gilmore is prosecuting the case.
Related court documents and information can be found on the website of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina or on PACER by searching for Case No. 7:21-CR-136-M.