Florida Man Sold Medicare Enrollee ID Numbers for 12 Cents Each

Later, when investigators looked at his records, they found that he had brokered about 2.6 million Medicare ID numbers, according to court filings. McElwee and prosecutors agreed that he gained $310,000 from the ID number sales.

Information about the number of duplicate numbers involved was not provided. The 2.6 million ID number transaction count figure amounts to about 4% of current Medicare enrollment.

According to the press release, McElwee and his co-conspirators used "data mining" and "social engineering techniques" to collect Medicare information, some of which was acquired through providers believed to be in the Philippines. The Justice Department did not respond to a question about the status of the Medicare ID number providers.

McElwee faced a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison.

William Dimitrouleas, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, approved a lighter sentence at the request of prosecutors.

An attorney for McElwee noted that McElwee had turned himself in to authorities the day that he knew prosecutors were looking for him; that he has a longstanding, difficult-to-treat substance-use disorder for which he has entered treatment; and that he has gone to all required drug screenings, in spite of the fact that he had tested positive on multiple occasions.

(Image: CMS)