Mississippi Man Sentenced to 18 Months in Federal Prison on Medicare Fraud Conspiracy Charges

NASHVILLE – Vernon Sanders, 57 of Meridian, Mississippi, was sentenced yesterday to 18 months in federal prison followed by 3 years of supervised release, as well as restitution of more than $3.3 million, announced United States Attorney Henry C. Leventis for the Middle District of Tennessee. Sanders also was ordered to forfeit $383,260. In December 2020, Sanders pleaded guilty to a one-count Information charging him with conspiracy to defraud the United States and to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute through the payment and receipt of illegal health care kickbacks between 2016 and 2020.

Sanders was the owner of the marketing company FastScripts, LLC, and a patient broker who referred Medicare beneficiaries to laboratories in exchange for the payment of kickbacks.  Sanders paid marketers kickbacks to recruit Medicare patients to provide their Medicare information and genetic material, which Sanders then sent to laboratories for Cancer genomic (“CGx”) testing in exchange for the payment of kickbacks from the laboratories. Sanders also paid kickbacks to doctors for signed orders for CGx tests, without regard for the medical necessity of the tests. Sanders was aware that these tests had been obtained through kickbacks, including kickbacks he paid to Individual 1, a co-conspirator physician in Loretto, Tennessee. In December 2020, Individual 1 pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud in the Middle District of Tennessee, and was also sentenced to 18 months in prison.

As a result of Sanders’ participation in the conspiracy, Medicare paid laboratories approximately $3,381,434 in reimbursements they were not entitled to receive because the patients had been procured through kickbacks, including orders signed by the physician in Loretto. From approximately June 2016 to January 2020, Sanders received approximately $383,260 in illegal kickback payments from laboratories and other marketing co-conspirators.

“Genetic testing fraud schemes bilk the Medicare system out of millions of dollars and trick Medicare beneficiaries into providing their personal information and genetic material,” said United States Attorney Henry C. Leventis. “In these national fraud schemes, marketers, like the defendant, together with unscrupulous doctors and laboratories, exploit vulnerable citizens as well as our federal health care programs. We remain committed to rooting out and prosecuting such crimes.”

This case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah K. Bogni prosecuted the case.

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