COLUMBUS, Ohio--A federal court has ordered an Ohio-based medical supplier to serve a 30-month prison term and pay more than $300,000 in restitution for impersonating a Department of Health and Human Services official and defrauding government health programs.

Carla E. Davison, 45, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio in 2004 for pretending to be an employee of the HHS Office of Inspector General.

Davison, who from June 2001 to March 2005 owned Phoenix Automated Medical Services, a medical equipment and supply company in Twinsburg, Ohio, admitted that she pretended to be a compliance officer at seminars she presented for health care providers between 2000 and 2004.

According to the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of Ohio, Davison collected at least $17,150 from seminar attendees, who received papers certifying them as a "Practice Compliance Officer," though no such government-sanctioned or authorized designation or qualification exists.

While waiting for sentencing on the impersonation plea, Davison was charged last year with billing Medicaid and Medicare for $290,936 in medical supplies that had not been provided.

"One item she fraudulently billed to the state and federal programs was identified as Hydrogel, an $849 wound-care treatment," said Gregory Lockhart, U.S. Attorney for the district. "Yet she gave patients much less expensive items, such as boxes of sterile wipes costing approximately $4.50 each. The economic loss to both the government and the citizens is substantial when individuals abuse our health care programs."