The former co-owner of a Houston medical equipment company has been convicted of bilking Medicaid of nearly $1 million in a scheme involving adult diapers.
Fred Jessie Cole Jr., 44, pleaded guilty to 14 counts of health care fraud connected to a scam to file fraudulent claims for incontinence supplies. Cole, who is free on bond, is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 11. He faces up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, up to three years of supervised release, and a lifetime of ridicule as the "Pee King."
Federal officials said Cole, who was co-owner of Crusade Integrated Health Services, admitted to submitting fraudulent claims to the Texas Medicaid Program for diapers that were neither delivered, nor wanted, nor needed, by the Medicare participants. Cole had submitted $1,068,387 worth of claims for diapers to Medicaid and was paid $937,567 for those claims, federal officials said.
Though he initially denied the charge, prosecutors suspected he was simply full of it. Federal authorities said he eventually admitted to submitting claims to Medicaid for the delivery of 1,338,466 units of diapers and briefs when he only purchased 314,571 units and to forging the signatures of Medicaid beneficiaries on delivery tickets.
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