Nnanta Felix Ngari, who is the owner of a medical equipment supply company in Louisiana, was sentenced to five years in prison for his part in a Medicare Fraud Scam yesterday, which was responsible for almost $5 million in Medicare fraud.

Ernest Payne, a patient recruiter for Ngari, was also sentenced to prison, receiving a slightly lower sentence of fifty-five months. Both men will also serve two years of probation and have been fined $2.5 million, although the fine will be split among others involved in the Medicare fraud.

Another man, a doctor named Sofjan Lamid who was paid kickbacks from Ngari, received three years probation, for his part in writing unnecessary prescriptions for medical equipment.

Ngari, and several of his co-defendents were convicted on August 16, 2011 and sentenced on January 12, 2012.

Ngari, is the owner of Unique Medical Solutions, LLC, which provided durable medical equipment for those on Medicare. Durable Medical Equipment includes things like wheelchairs, hospital beds, walkers, and other types of physical medical equipment that is typically covered by Medicare. For most types of home medical equipment, a doctor’s prescription is required to receive coverage and for some items, a more advanced certificate of medical necessity is needed.

Unique Medical Solutions focused on providing electric power wheelchairs to Medicare recipients, however, according to court documents, Ngari began to use his co-defendants, such as Payne, to get prescriptions for power chairs that were not required for medical reasons.

To help find Medicare recipients, Ngari began to hold regular health conferences at local churches and other public areas around Baton Rouge. Visitors to the health conferences that were on Medicare would often receive prescriptions for power chairs, written by doctors like Sofjan Lamid, who received kickbacks for their part in the scam.

According to the prosecuting attorney, this fraud scheme took place from between 2003 and 2009, resulting in over $4.5 million in fraudulent Medicare claims. Unique Medical Solutions received around half of this in payment from Medicare.