PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — More than two dozen Medicare recipients from across the country have contacted WPTV with reports of fraudulent billing from a Delray Beach company, with claims totaling more than $336,000 for medical equipment they say they never needed or received.
Since Chief Investigator Jamie Ostroff first reported on Sunshine Senior Solutions in June, seniors from Ohio to Arizona to Illinois have reached out with similar stories. They all received Medicare statements showing thousands of dollars in charges for medical supplies like catheters and bladder drainage equipment they never ordered.
WATCH: Seniors from across the country spoke to WPTV about Delray Beach company
"I got my Medicare Summary Notice last month, and I had been billed by a company called Sunshine Senior Solutions in Delray Beach, Florida," said Marty Rowe, a retired banker from Ohio. "It was shocking. I've never used catheters."
The amounts being billed have increased since my original investigation. While earlier reports showed charges of $5,130, the recent claims are much higher.
"$11,760 for intermittent urinary catheters, which I do not use. If I use them, I would certainly know that," Rowe said.
MJ Clement, a military veteran from Arizona, saw charges on her Medicare summary totaling $15,460. She visited a senior community nearby and told management to warn residents about unrecognized charges from Sunshine Senior Solutions.
Jim Dente, of New Jersey, had charges totaling $27,240 across multiple claims.
"Stuff I've never heard of," Dente said about the medical equipment listed on his Medicare statement.
When Laura Carmine noticed charges totaling $36,462 between her own Medicare account and her husband’s, she reached out to her suburban-Chicago pickleball group to see if others had noticed claims from Sunshine Senior Solutions. Four said they had.
Members of Carmine’s pickleball group were among the 19 Medicare recipients who agreed to share their explanations of benefits with WPTV. Between them, Sunshine Senior Solutions had billed for more than $336,000 in charges worth of medical equipment.
The University of Colorado Health system, which operates hospitals in Colorado and Wyoming, issued a fraud alert to Medicare beneficiaries about Sunshine Senior Solutions.
A spokeswoman for the hospital system said they’d been notified by multiple patients that they’d received explanations of benefits with unrecognized claims from the Delray Beach business. UC Health also included a New York-based company in the alert.
Every person who spoke with WPTV said they called Medicare's fraud hotline to report the suspicious billing.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Seniors question Medicare charges from this Delray Beach company
"And they said, 'We are aware of this. We're investigating,'" said Peggy Foley, a member of Carmine’s pickleball group.
Reading from her written notes while recounting her phone call to WPTV, Carmine added, "The lady I talked to said, and I quote, ‘We get a lot of fraud from them. In the past three months, we've had beaucoup fraud complaints.’”
We first contacted the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services about Sunshine Senior Solutions in April. A spokesperson wouldn't confirm or deny an ongoing investigation, explaining that fact-finding, legal review and multi-agency coordination can cause investigations to take months or even years.
When we followed up with CMS five months later, they sent a similar response but added that the agency could suspend payments or revoke billing privileges if they have concerns about a provider. They could not comment on a specific provider.
"It's in the government's interest, in everybody's interest, for them to take care of this as soon as possible," said one of the affected seniors.
All the people who spoke with WPTV said their secondary insurance denied the portion of the bill that Medicare didn't cover. But Medicare did pay a portion of these claims.
"We pay for this. The taxpayers pay for this," Rowe said.
WPTV tried multiple times to get Sunshine's response to these allegations. Their phone number goes to a voicemail for someone named "Sherry."
When Ostroff visited their office suite on Linton Boulevard in April, an employee said she couldn't answer my questions and directed me to call the same phone number.
Florida's Attorney General, the Agency for Healthcare Administration did not respond to inquiries from WPTV.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.