USE Department of Justice USE
Courtesy of the Department of Justice

A Franklin man has been charged in connection with a $15 million Medicare billing fraud scheme that also saw the arrest of a Murfreesboro man and two Florida men.

44-year-old James Brandon “Brady” Washburn, of Franklin, was charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud, health care fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States and to pay and receive health care kickbacks, and paying and receiving health care kickbacks in connection with his role in "selling doctors’ orders for ‘medically unnecessary’ genetic tests, medications, and durable medical equipment (DME) to laboratories, pharmacies, and DME companies.”

Washburn, owner and purported supplier of Brentwood-based Black Bear Medical, RiseMedical and Washburn Medical; Franklin-based Limestone Medical; Lewisburg-based Med LLC; and New Jersey-based Global Med Marketing.

According to court records, Washburn's co-defendant, 43-year-old Robert Houston McDowell, of Murfreesboro, who is also charged with the same crimes, is co-owner of Limestone Medical and RiseMedical, where he was purportedly a marketer.

Prosecutors alleged that the men “bought doctors’ orders for orthotic braces and submitted claims for medically unnecessary items to Medicare” and “obtained the orders by paying kickbacks and bribes to purported telemedicine companies and marketers in exchange for doctors signing orders for DME.”

36-year-old Paulo R. Costa, of Palm City, Fla., and 35-year-old Mark J.W. Carr, of Lighthouse Point, Fla., were each charged by separate information with conspiracy to commit health care fraud and to pay and receive health care kickbacks in connection with an over $9 million scheme involving multiple pharmacies, including in Mt. Juliet and Goodlettsville.

Prosecutors said that the defendants and co-conspirators received more than $1 million in kickbacks “for selling doctors’ orders to laboratories, pharmacies, and DME companies; that they submitted and caused to be submitted, through their DME companies, over $6 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for DME; and that their DME companies were paid over $2 million on those claims.”

“It does not matter if you are a trafficker in a drug cartel or a corporate executive or medical professional employed by a healthcare company, if you profit from the unlawful distribution of controlled substances, you will be held accountable,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a news release. “The Justice Department will bring to justice criminals who defraud Americans, steal from taxpayer-funded programs, and put people in danger for the sake of profits.” 

The charges are a part of the U.S. Justice Department’s 2024 National Health Care Fraud Enforcement Action, a “strategically coordinated, two-week nationwide law enforcement action” which has resulted in criminal charges against 193 defendants across the country in what prosecutors allege are schemes that resulted in more than $2.75 billion in fraudulent billings.