Former E-Town man sentenced on medical fraud charge

A former Hardin County man has been sentenced on federal charges.

Pedro Reyes, formerly of Elizabethtown, will serve two years and nine months in prison followed by two years of supervised release for “engaging in a conspiracy to commit health care fraud in connection with durable medical equipment businesses.”

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Kentucky, Reyes plead guilty to one count of Conspiracy to Commit Health Care Fraud. The U.S. Attorney’s Office says Reyes, through multiple companies, fraudulently billed Medicare for durable medical equipment, such as back, knee, and shoulder braces, that was “medically unnecessary, unwanted by patients, and not prescribed by the patients’ medical providers.”

According to the plea agreement entered into by Reyes in February, the scheme was run between February 2019 and April 2021. Reyes is ordered to pay a little more than $6 million in restitution as part of the sentencing.

The case was investigated by the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General. The U.S. Attorney’s Office says there is no parole in the federal system.