Kansas CEO gets 19 years for $1B Medicare telemedicine fraud scheme

SHOTS Desk · Fri · 16 Oct 2026 · 05:36 · Reported

Brett Blackman, 43, of Johnson County, Kansas, was sentenced to 19 years in prison after a 23-day jury trial ending in April 2026. Blackman owned and controlled HealthSplash, which acquired DMERx, an internet platform that generated false doctors' orders for durable medical equipment.

Blackman and his co-conspirators targeted hundreds of thousands of Medicare beneficiaries, arranging for telemedicine doctors to sign bogus prescriptions for medically unnecessary orthotic braces in exchange for illegal kickbacks. The fraudulent orders falsely represented that doctors had examined patients; in some cases the doctor had no interaction with the beneficiary at all.

DME suppliers and pharmacies billed Medicare and other federal health care programs more than $1 billion. Medicare and other insurers paid more than $450 million on those claims. Medicare was billed for braces for more than 346,000 beneficiaries, averaging four braces each.

Blackman was convicted of conspiracy to commit health

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