Judge sentences Lawton nursing home administrator to 18 months in prison

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A federal judge has sentenced a longtime Lawton nursing home administrator to 18 months in prison after the man admitted soliciting kickbacks from medical supply companies.

U.S. District Judge Ralph Thompson also on Monday ordered Don W.

Greb, 55, to pay $23,465 in restitution and fined him $10,000.

Greb, former administrator of Cedar Crest Nursing Home, is to report to prison Jan. 16. Federal prosecutors alleged Greb forced the companies to put his wife on the payroll to do business with his nursing home.

Greb pleaded guilty in May in Oklahoma City federal court to soliciting kickbacks from Johnson and Johnson Medical Inc. and American Medi-Serv Inc. in exchange for purchasing medical equipment and supplies from those companies.

Johnson and Johnson Medical Inc. paid Greb seven kickbacks totaling $7,446 in the form of "paychecks" made to Greb's wife, Connie Greb.

American Medi-Serv. Inc. paid Greb 15 kickbacks totaling $11,448, using the same kickback scheme. The kickbacks were paid in 1995 and 1996.

Besides taking kickbacks, Greb admitted defrauding Cedar Crest Nursing Home by secretly making himself a middleman in the purchase of medical supplies from an Illinois company.

Greb would buy the supplies and then intercept the invoices before they reached the nursing home. He then would substitute inflated invoices from companies he owned and submit them to the nursing home for payment.

After receiving payment, Greb would pay the Illinois company the amounts it had billed and Greb would keep the difference.

Greb's attorney, Mack Martin, said there never were any allegations against Greb about patient care at the nursing home.

In 1997, Greb was appointed to a 27-person committee formed by the state Board of Health to oversee the writing of new kinds of licensing regulations for senior citizen housing.