Tex. EMS Provider Imprisoned for Medicare, Medicaid Fraud

Herald Democrat, Sherman, Texas

Joseph Valdie Kimble, 57, of Longview was recently sentenced to 30 months in prison for Medicare and Medicaid fraud.

Kimble was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jeremy D. Kernodle. Kimble was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $751,986.30 to Medicare and Medicaid and was ordered not to seek or retain employment in the health care fraud industry while serving three years of supervised release.

A statement from the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas Joe Brown, said information presented in court showed that Kimble operated Tiger EMS, a business providing non-emergency ambulance transport, mostly between skilled nursing centers and hospitals and dialysis centers. Ambulance providers may bill for ambulance services only if there is a demonstrated medical need, which requires that either a beneficiary be bed-confined and it is documented that other methods of transportation are contraindicated; or the beneficiary's medical condition is such that transportation by ambulance is medically required. Kimble disregarded medical necessity requirements and billed Medicare and Medicaid for ambulance services provided to patients for whom ambulance transport was not medically necessary.

This case was investigated by U.S. Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General and the Texas Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alan R. Jackson and Frank Coan.