Defendant in medical scam given a year

TAMPA -- A defendant in a major Medicare scam was sentenced to a year and a day in prison and three years' probation Thursday for defrauding government health programs.

Renee LaChance Hunter Livio, 38, of Spring Hill also was ordered to pay $473,848 in restitution. Livio was one of eight people charged last year in a 55-count indictment with bilking $25.7-million from Medicare and Medicaid.

Barry D. Haught and Ernest L. Sleeth, both of Tampa, owned or controlled the companies used in the schemes. They have pleaded guilty but have not been sentenced.

In the scams, sales people swept through poor neighborhoods, asking Medicare recipients if they wanted equipment such as hospital beds or pressurized mattresses.

A recurring scheme, the indictment said, was to promise customers electric scooters that cost the government $500, then bill the government for motorized wheelchairs that cost up to $10,000. Some customers had no need for the equipment, court records say.

The indictment also cites faked medical records and kickbacks to doctors.

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