Hoosier EMS Co-Owner Receives Medicare Fraud Sentence

 The co-owner of a Buffalo-based private ambulance service accused of defrauding Medicare has been sentenced in federal court.

Anthony Bitterling, 42, of Winamac, was sentenced to 24 months in prison, 400 hours of community service, two years of supervised release and ordered to pay more than $1 million in restitution. He previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud.

Court documents indicate Bitterling and co-defendants, 29-year-old Kahley Vergon-Mayotte of Reynolds and 62-year-old Roy Dunn of Monticello ran Hoosier EMS. The company fraudulently billed Medicare for transportation of recipients to dialysis appointments between May of 2009 and May of 2012. As a result, the federal program paid out more than $1 million for medically unnecessary ambulance transportation.

Vergon-Mayotte is scheduled to be sentenced on March 17th. Dunn was sentenced in January to 30 months in prison, two years of supervised release and ordered to pay more than $1 million in restitution.