A Chandler woman initially set to stand trial in July 2018 on charges of filing nearly 2,000 fraudulent Medicare claims for her company won’t stand trial until late December, after a federal judge recently granted a defense motion for a seventh postponement.
Frances Jones was arrested in March 2018 and later charged with 55 felonies connected to $3.2 million in payments made by U.S. Health and Human Services to her company Oxicheck NW LLC from 2010 to 2018. The company, which Jones operated in Bisbee, was an approved HHS vendor of durable medical equipment such as wheelchairs, walkers, and bath chairs.
On Oct. 8, U.S. District Judge Rosemary Marquez canceled a scheduled Nov. 26 trial at the request of the defense. The trial is now set to begin Dec. 24 with a Dec. 6 plea agreement deadline.
The charges against Jones, 50, include healthcare fraud, aggravated identity theft, and making false statements to HHS. The U.S. Attorney’s Office contends Jones faked several delivery receipts, and that most of the doctors listed on Oxicheck NW’s billings never ordered equipment for their patients. In some cases, the doctors didn’t even treat the named patients, according to court documents.
More than 400 of the billings Oxicheck NW submitted to HHS involve one patient. He told investigators he neither needed nor received most of the items, including a hospital bed. Other purported patients told investigators they never received the billed equipment even though Oxicheck NW charged them co-payments for the items.
Federal agents seized financial and physical assets belonging to Jones and the company during a March 2018 raid of her Chandler home and Bisbee office. Those assets remain frozen as part of a civil action initiated on behalf of HHS “to preserve assets that could be used to satisfy a potential restitution owed to victims or forfeiture judgment” against Jones and the business.
Court records show that plea negotiations have been ongoing for several months between Lori Price of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Jordan Malka, the federal public defender appointed to represent Jones. In the meantime, Jones remains out of custody on her own recognizance and has received court approval to travel out of the country on several occasions.