A former Little Rock medical equipment business owner was sentenced on Friday to 27 months in federal prison and ordered to pay nearly $1 million in restitution for Medicare fraud.
Archibong Edem-Effiong, 58, now of Houston, who owned Joshua Medical Link Corp. in Little Rock, had pleaded guilty in October in U.S. District Court in Little Rock.
At the plea hearing, Edem-Effiong admitted that, between December 2007 and March 2009, he stole the identity of a Nigerian woman he knew from church and used the information to apply for a Medicare Durable Medical Equipment supplier number, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Little Rock.
After receiving the DME number, he billed Medicare for arthritis kits and power wheelchairs that were either not ordered by physicians or never delivered to patients.
The total amount billed to Medicare was $1.94 million and the total amount paid to the defendant through the DME company was $983,273, the news release said. Edem-Effiong was ordered to repay the amount he received.
He is to report to federal prison on March 29.
Sign up for Daily E-news
