HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Two men who live in different parts of the Houston area don’t know each other, but they both said they spotted something they didn’t recognize on their Medicare accounts in the last few months.<\/p>\n
Now, they are sounding the alarm over questionable charges to their Medicare accounts by a Florida company that they say they didn’t recognize.<\/p>\n
“I found the big ones from senior – the Sunshine, Sunshine Senior Solutions,” said Richard Carter, a Houston-area Medicare recipient.<\/p>\n
Medicare recipient Ron Barlow also said he saw that same company pop up on his account.<\/p>\n
Records for Barlow and Carter show both of their Medicare accounts were billed several times by Sunshine Senior Solutions in Florida for a few thousand dollars at a time.<\/p>\n
Barlow was charged for “wound covers” and hundreds of catheters between September 2024 and February of this year, according to Medicare documents he received.<\/p>\n
13 Investigates asked Barlow if he uses or has those products.<\/p>\n
“No, not at all,” Barlow said. “I would know if I had a catheter.”<\/p>\n
In total, Barlow’s Medicare Summary Notice shows that Medicare paid Sunshine Senior Solutions about $25,700 for those supplies.<\/p>\n
Carter said he was just curious about his healthcare cost, so he reviewed his bills, and that’s when he saw his Medicare account was charged for knee and wrist braces and other medical supplies that he said he didn’t need.<\/p>\n
“It’s not like they’re even sending the equipment out, so everything they get is pure profit,” Carter said.<\/p>\n
Records show Medicare paid a little over $15,000 on Carter’s behalf in the same period, September 2024 to February of this year. He reported it to Medicare.<\/p>\n
“They asked me the usual questions. ‘Are you using these?’ ‘No.’ ‘Have you received any of this stuff in the mail?’ ‘No.’ And they said, ‘Well, it sounds like fraud to us, too,'” Carter said.<\/p>\n
13 Investigates noticed the doctor listed on Carter’s claim practices in Houston.<\/p>\n
Carter said he had never heard of the doctor. We called the doctor, and he said he didn’t know Carter either.<\/p>\n
But the doctor said someone else reached out to him a few months prior, saying he was listed on their Medicare as ordering supplies from Sunshine Senior Solutions, too.<\/p>\n
The doctor said he had nothing to do with it and didn’t know why his name was being used.<\/p>\n
13 Investigates contacted other states’ attorney generals, asking if they had complaints against Sunshine Senior Solutions, and three said yes.<\/p>\n
Carter said “the scary part about it” is that he doesn’t know how many other people are being billed and don’t realize it.<\/p>\n
The address on Carter and Barlow’s Medicare documents for Sunshine Senior Solutions is an office building in Delray Beach, Florida, which is north of Fort Lauderdale.<\/p>\n
Florida’s Division of Corporations shows Sunshine Senior Solutions LLC started in 2020, and since then, records show it has changed hands at least five times.<\/p>\n
A healthcare system in Colorado put out an “Alert for Medicare Beneficiaries” earlier this year, in March, naming Sunshine Senior Solutions for complaints of suspicious charges and potential fraud.<\/p>\n
13 Investigates attempted to contact Sunshine Senior Solutions, including the current owner, by phone and by email for several days and never got a hold of anyone.<\/p>\n
Our sister station WPVI in Philadelphia was able to reach a woman listed in Florida records as the owner of the company during part of the time the questionable charges were filed on the men’s Medicare accounts.<\/p>\n
She pointed out that she sold the company in November 2024 and denied having any involvement in fraudulent billing.<\/p>\n
She did confirm to WPVI that she had been in a relationship with Victor Van Vickery, who is currently serving seven years in federal prison on an unrelated Medicare fraud scheme that cost taxpayers millions of dollars.<\/p>\n
Federal sources tell 13 Investigates that as of June 2025, Sunshine Senior Solutions is no longer enrolled in the Medicare program, meaning they can’t bill anymore.<\/p>\n
“A lot of waste, a lot of corruption, a lot of inefficiency. I don’t know how you clean something up that has grown to be so big,” Barlow said.<\/p>\n
Neither Barlow nor Carter had to pay a dime out of pocket to Sunshine Senior Solutions, but they’re concerned about the hit to taxpayers and what it means for their insurance costs down the line.<\/p>\n
“They’re looking at it, ‘Oh wow, this guy’s got more problems than we thought. We need to bump up what he’s paying,’ so in a way it is going to catch up to me and probably already has,” Carter said.<\/p>\n
Carter and Barlow want this to be a reminder to everyone to check their medical billing records regularly, because that’s how they found these questionable charges.<\/p>\n
We were curious if this was being investigated criminally. The FBI would not confirm or deny if they were investigating, which is standard of the agency, but they tell 13 Investigates that health care fraud investigations are considered “high priority” for their criminal division.<\/p>\n
Contact 13 Investigates<\/p>\n