February 3, 2020

Senthil Kumar Ramamurthy of Texas has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for participating in two fraud schemes that amounted to $9.6 million in losses by Medicare and TRICARE.  In the first scheme, which ran for 10 months in 2014, Ramamurthy and his co-conspirators were paid millions of dollars by compounding pharmacies to get TRICARE beneficiaries to sign up for medically unnecessary compounded prescription drugs.  To get beneficiaries to sign up, defendants had falsely represented that the drugs would be free, when in fact co-payments were required.  In the second scheme, which ran from 2015 onward, Ramamurthy and his co-conspirators paid doctors to refer Medicare beneficiaries—without first examining them—for needless genetic cancer screening tests.  Many of Ramamurthy’s co-conspirators have plead guilty and face sentencing later this month.  USAO SDFL

Tagged in: Anti-Kickback and Stark, Compounding Pharmacy Fraud, Criminal Proceedings, Healthcare Fraud, Laboratory and IDTF, Lack of Medical Necessity, Other Government Health Programs, Pharma Fraud,