Harlingen Couple Sentenced for Billing Medicare $14 Million in Wheelchair Repairs for 37 Patients
Jeremiah and Maria Luisa Yzaguirre got 110 and 80 months. They admitted billing $736,072 for one patient’s wheelchair parts that were never replaced.
A Harlingen, Texas, couple who ran a medical equipment business have been sentenced to a combined 190 months in federal prison for billing Medicare about $14 million for power wheelchairs, parts and repairs for just 37 patients.
U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. sentenced Jeremiah Yzaguirre, 47, to 110 months and his wife, Maria Luisa Yzaguirre, 47, to 80 months, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas said on Oct. 23, 2026. The judge ordered them to pay $9,248,976 in restitution to Medicare and a $25,000 fine, followed by three years of supervised release each. Both pleaded guilty on April 22, 2025.
The two ran Southwest Medical Homepatient in Harlingen, which was enrolled in Medicare as a supplier of durable medical equipment and said it provided parts and repairs for power wheelchairs, prosecutors said.
Hundreds of parts for a single chair
Between 2019 and 2023, the business billed Medicare about $14 million on behalf of 37 people. Spread evenly, that would be roughly $378,000 per patient. Prosecutors described multiple cases in which the couple billed for hundreds of parts and repairs on one person’s wheelchair.
For one beneficiary alone, the Yzaguirres admitted as part of their pleas that they billed about $736,072 in parts and repairs by falsely claiming they had replaced certain expensive parts hundreds of times. They also admitted they were paid millions of dollars for work that was never done and parts that were never provided, according to the office.
Investigators found they spent the money on cryptocurrency, a vehicle, electronics, collectibles and purses, prosecutors said. KRGV reported, citing the indictment, that the vehicle was a 2017 Acura NSX valued at more than $117,000 and that the collectibles included a Johnny 5 robot prop from the movie “Short Circuit,” two Legend of Zelda video games, Lego sets and anime figurines.
The $9.2 million in restitution is the amount the court ordered them to repay, not the full $14 million they billed. The release does not say how much Medicare paid in total.
The office said both would stay in custody until they are transferred to a federal prison. The FBI, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the Texas Health and Human Services inspector general, the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the Texas Department of Insurance investigated the case.
