An appeals court in Chicago has overturned the conviction of Mark Sorensen, the former owner of Symed, a durable medical equipment company, The National Law Review reported April 17.
In March 2024, Mr. Sorensen was convicted for his alleged participation in an $87 million healthcare fraud kickback scheme. He and his co-conspirators were accused of tricking patients into agreeing to receive braces, some of which were not needed or wanted. The co-conspirators repeatedly contacted physicians to get them to sign the prescriptions authorizing the braces.
Mr. Sorensen was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for his participation in the scheme, but on appeal the court found that there was insufficient evidence to support the claim that he violated the federal Anti-Kickback Statute.
The court unanimously reversed Mr. Sorensen’s conviction, concluding that that his payments did not violate AKS because there was not enough evidence to prove that any of the payees leveraged their influence or power over healthcare decisions or authorized any medical care. The appeal focused on the fact that 80% of the prescriptions were never signed and instead returned by physicians.
The court concluded that “while physicians and non-physicians alike may exert formal or informal influence on patients’ choice of healthcare providers,” this was not true in Mr. Sorensen’s case and physicians maintained independent decision-making when it came to patient care. The court did characterize his marketing tactics as “aggressive advertising efforts,” but said they did not amount to unlawful referrals of patients.
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