Usav.Ben Bane
Ben Bane was convicted of conspiracy to commit health-care fraud, multiple health-care-fraud counts, and false claims after his companies billed Medicare and Medicaid for portable oxygen. His employees performed required pulse-oximetry testing themselves, represented that independent laboratories had performed it, falsified records and signatures, and destroyed computers during the investigation. The district court imposed a 151-month sentence, $7,031,050.68 in restitution, and a $3 million fine. The Eleventh Circuit held that the Guidelines loss calculation properly included payments for oxygen obtained through fraudulent certification, and that the 270 patients, insurers, Medicare, and Medicaid counted as victims. But restitution required reconsideration because the district court had not decided whether medically necessary oxygen provided to patients should offset the amount owed. The court also held that the fine violated the Sixth Amendment under Apprendi and Southern Union: the jury had not found the loss amount used to raise the fine above the $2.5 million maximum supported by the ten felony convictions. The court vacated the restitution order and fine, remanded for recalculation and resentencing on those issues, and affirmed the sentence in all other respects. Judge Jordan disagreed with the majority’s loss analysis in part.
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