Two men, from Texas and Florida, are facing six years total for their role in Medicare scams.
Paul Wexler, a 56-year-old from Spring, Texas, and Paul Bleignier, a 64-year-old from Seminole, Florida, led a marketing company that solicited Medicare recipients for unnecessary genetic testing, according to a release from the Department of Justice. They caused Medicare to be billed $17.3 million, but were paid only $5.2 million.
The suspects were sentenced on November 13, according to the release. Wexler faces four years in prison, while Bleignier faces two years, plus another two-year sentence immediately after, for falsifying ownership information of a lab in Medicare enrollment. They were also each ordered to pay $5.2 million in restitution, $1.2 million in forfeiture, plus an additional $916,106 in forfeiture from Bleignier.
The men reportedly ran a telemarketing company recruiting Medicare recipients for medically unnecessary cancer genetic testing, which detects gene mutations suggesting risk for future cancer, but that could not diagnose current cancer. Medicare covers this testing in some limited circumstances.
They and their unnamed “co-conspirators” also allegedly sought and received kickbacks in exchange for referring Medicare beneficiaries for this testing, which was not eligible for Medicare reimbursement.
While the case was still pending for genetic testing fraud, Bleignier reportedly opened a clinical lab and enrolled it in Medicare. The program requires disclosure of anyone with 5% or more ownership interest, but the suspect allegedly used others’ identities to disguise his involvement.
“The claims related to that laboratory were further tainted by kickbacks,” the release reads.
Bleignier and his co-conspirators, also unnamed, billed Medicare for $3,012,156 in ineligible claims, and they were paid $916,106.
Wexler pleaded guilty in April 2024 to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and wire fraud, according to the release. Bleignier pleaded guilty in November 2022 to conspiracy to defraud the United States and pay and receive kickbacks – then, in November 2024, to making false statements in healthcare matters.
The FBI and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General investigated the case, while the DOJ’s Criminal Division Trial Attorney, Charles Strauss, prosecuted the case.
The DOJ announced in June that nearly 50 people, including 18 medical professionals, were charged for a $360 million Medicare fraud scheme in the Southern District of Texas, as The Dallas Express reported at the time.