William “Ed” Henry, 48, of Hartselle, Alabama, is walking free on two years’ probation after admitting his role in a scheme to steal from the federal government by funneling illegal kickbacks to doctors and patients in exchange for Medicare referrals. Henry, former CEO of MyPractice24, Inc., was sentenced Thursday, May 2, 2019, and slapped with a $4,000 fine — a paltry sum compared to the millions that flow through Medicare’s chronic care programs.
Court records show Henry’s company, MyPractice24, operated under the guise of providing non-face-to-face chronic care management services to Medicare beneficiaries with multiple long-term conditions. The setup looked clean on paper: doctors signed contracts, patients got care, Medicare paid the providers. But behind the scenes, Henry turned the program into a cash pipeline. From 2015 to 2017, he rigged the system by paying kickbacks to physicians — including convicted felon Dr. Gilberto Sanchez of Montgomery — in return for patient referrals.
Dr. Sanchez, who later pleaded guilty to drug distribution, health care fraud, and money laundering, didn’t just take bribes — he passed them down to patients. Henry helped facilitate the fraud by encouraging Sanchez to waive required Medicare copays, effectively bribing enrollees to sign up. That’s not care management — that’s trafficking in government benefits. And Sanchez wasn’t alone. Henry admitted to striking similar illegal deals with Dr. Punuru Reddy of Decatur and Dr. Nicole Scruggs of Huntsville.
The entire operation warped Medicare’s intent. Doctors billed the government for services tied to financial incentives, not medical need. The reimbursements flowed, and so did the illicit payouts. Henry didn’t pull the trigger on every fraudulent claim, but as CEO and owner, he built the machinery. His guilty plea to one count of theft of government property barely scratches the surface of the systemic rot he helped install.
Federal investigators from HHS-OIG, the DEA’s Tactical Diversion Squad, and IRS-Criminal Investigation dismantled the scheme with help from local agencies, including the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, Alabama Board of Medical Examiners, and police departments in Montgomery and Opelika. The collaboration underscores how deeply fraud can embed itself when greed infiltrates health care.
Prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jonathan S. Ross and Megan A. Kirkpatrick, the case ends not with prison bars, but with probation. Two years of supervision and a $4,000 fine — that’s the price of stealing from a system meant to care for the sick. For the patients caught in the crossfire, and the taxpayers left holding the bag, justice feels more like a settlement than a reckoning.
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Key Facts
- State: Alabama
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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