November 25, 2015

The US settled for more than $30 million allegations against several Florida compound pharmacies and their owners for violating the False Claims Act by fraudulently billing TRICARE, the military’s healthcare program.  The settling defendants and their respective settlements include: MedMatch Pharmacy (agreeing to pay more than $4.7 million to resolve concerns that it paid kickbacks to marketers, that it filled prescriptions it knew or should have known were not legitimate, and that it sent prescriptions to states in which it did not have a valid license); OHM Pharmacy (agreeing to pay $4.1 million to resolve allegations of filling prescriptions from a doctor who was writing them outside the ordinary course of practice); WELL Health Pharmacy and its owner (agreeing to pay more than $3 million, as well as 50% of its net profits for five years, for filling prescriptions written by referral sources that had a financial interest in the prescriptions); Topical Specialists (agreeing to pay more than $2.2 million for submitting prescriptions that were tainted by so-called “research fees,” which was an elaborate guise for paying physicians to write prescriptions); Durbin Pharmacy (agreeing to pay $2.1 million, plus 50% of its net profits for five years, for submitting prescriptions that were tainted by kickbacks); and North Beaches Pharmacy (agreeing to pay $10,000, plus 50% of its net profits for five years, for filling compound prescriptions that the government contends were tainted by illegal kickbacks).  DOJ (MDFL)

Tagged in: Anti-Kickback and Stark, Compounding Pharmacy Fraud, FCA Federal, Other Government Health Programs, Pharma Fraud,