Medical Supply Workers Facing Fraud Charges : Investigation: Two surrender to marshals, with four others to turn themselves in later. State, U.S. authorities say prescriptions were altered.

Two employees of a Costa Mesa medical supply company surrendered to authorities Wednesday in connection with an alleged scheme that reportedly defrauded the Medi-Cal system of thousands of dollars in claims.

Long Beach residents Thomas Lowe and Robert Hale, both 43, who work for Sunmac Medical Supply Co. in Costa Mesa, turned themselves in to state marshals at Municipal Court in Newport Beach following an investigation by the state attorney general’s office, said office spokesman David Carr.

Four other suspects, including Sunmac Medical Supply owner Marianne Curtis of Costa Mesa, are expected to turn themselves in to authorities next week. An attorney for Curtis said Wednesday that his client is innocent.

Lowe and Hale were released from Orange County Jail by Judge Suzanne Shaw later in the day on their own recognizance and were ordered to return to Municipal Court for arraignment Sept. 22, Carr said.

The 2 1/2-year investigation by the attorney general’s Medi-Cal Fraud Bureau and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and office of the inspector general allegedly found that Sunmac Medical Supply altered and forged prescriptions and submitted them to Medi-Cal and the federal Medicare program.

Under the alleged scheme, Carr said, company officials submitted payment claims for use of electronic nerve stimulators. The stimulators were often not used by the doctors.

Company officials, who were unavailable for comment, were also charged with paying as much as $53,000 in kickbacks to physicians for patient referrals, according to a criminal complaint filed Sept. 9 by the attorney general’s office.

Also named in the complaint are Sunmac Medical Supply employees Dennis O’Dell, 45, of Costa Mesa, Connie Burlingame, 28, of Huntington Beach, and William Reed, 59, of Buena Park.

The four remaining suspects have agreed to surrender in court on Sept. 22, officials said.

Curtis’ attorney, David A. Katz, a former federal prosecutor, said his client and her employees are the victims of “unscrupulous” doctors, who often asked Sunmac employees to fill in reimbursement forms that the doctors had previously signed.

Some of the information provided to Sunmac employees, Katz charged, turned out to be false.

Curtis and her employees “plan to be vindicated,” Katz said. “The unfortunate thing is that they are being dragged through this criminal case and a lot of blame is on the doctors.”

Katz also said his client did not engage in any kickbacks with doctors.

The suspects face a variety of charges, including conspiracy to defraud the Medi-Cal and Medicare programs, grand theft and presenting false claims. The attorney general’s office said the company’s alleged wrongdoing netted more than $100,000.