Winamac man must pay $1M in restitution for health care fraud

A Winamac resident was sentenced to prison for conspiracy to commit health care fraud related to an ambulance service for dialysis patients, according to the US Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana.

Anthony Bitterling, 42, was sentenced to 24 months in prison, 400 hours of community service, 2 years supervised release and ordered to pay $1,062,181 in restitution.

Bitterling and his co-defendants Kahley Vergon-Mayotte and Roy Dunn ran an ambulance company, Hoosier EMS, that fraudulently billed Medicare for transporting Medicare recipients to dialysis appointments.

They fraudulently reported the patients were unable to walk, but the patients actually could walk, according to court documents.

The fraud resulted in Medicare paying out over $1 million for medically unnecessary ambulance transportation.

Bitterling pleaded guilty in February 2014.

Dunn was sentenced on January 8, 2016 to 30 months in prison, 2 years supervised release and ordered to pay $1,062, 181 in restitution.

Vergon-Mayotte is scheduled to be sentenced on March 17, 2016.