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SALT LAKE CITY — The former owner of a Salt Lake medical equipment company has admitted in federal court to filing false Medicare claims totaling nearly $1.4 million for power wheelchairs in a scheme known as "chiseling."
In pleading guilty to conspiracy to committee health care fraud, Jacob J. Kilgore, 36, of Fruit Heights, agreed to a five-year prison term, according to the Utah U.S. Attorney's Office. He is scheduled to be sentenced in January.
Kilgore owned Orbit Medical, a Utah- and Indiana-based supplier of medical equipment that specialized in power wheelchairs. He worked as the company's western sales manager.
Kilgore admitted that he told sales reps to falsify records — including doctors' prescriptions and chart notes — to make it look like patients qualified for wheelchairs when they did not, a process known as "chiseling." He also installed software that allowed them to electronically chisel documents from doctors to make it appear that patients met Medicare requirements.
During his time at Orbit, Kilgore had a sales quota of 10 power wheelchairs per month, and fired sales reps for failing to meet it, according to prosecutors.
Former Orbit salesmen Morgan Workman, of Farmington, David Evans of South Jordan, and Hunter Hartman, of Ladera Ranch, California, have also pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit health care fraud. Sentencing for the three will be in February.
In May, Orbit agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle a civil lawsuit over submitting false claims to Medicare and other federal health programs.
