Five veterans have been indicted by the Justice Department for participating in one of the largest scams to target the military’s Tricare health system.
The veterans, along with dozens of co-conspirators across the nation, raked in hundreds of millions of dollars by selling treatments to patients enrolled in the Tricare system, prosecutors have charged. The treatments were billed to Tricare, creating profits that lined the pockets of doctors, pharmacists, salesmen, and military members who acted as marketers.
Former Marine Bradley White was the latest veteran to be convicted for his involvement in the scam. White and his colleagues recruited and paid Marines and their family members to use medications from Choice MD, a Tennessee-based company that specializes in creating compound medications.
Choice MD physicians wrote the prescriptions, sending patients to fill them at pharmacies that worked for the company. Pharmacists mailed the prescriptions to patients, then billed Tricare, pocketed the reimbursements, and paid off their co-conspirators.
Patients recruited by White billed more than $7.6 million to Tricare, earning him more than $200,000. Choice MD as a whole brought in $65 million.
Army Staff Sgt. Cordera Hill was convicted in a similar scam while stationed at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, in 2014. A fellow service member recruited Hill, prosecutors charged. Hill then recruited Navy Petty Officer Anthonio Miller, who in turn recruited U.S. Army reservist Rashad Barr.
The three men paid patients to order medication through the pharmacies, receiving kickbacks for themselves. Many patients did not need the creams and threw them out without using them, Justice Department officials claimed. Tricare paid more than $700,000 on claims submitted by patients in Hill’s downline.
Hill was found guilty of conspiracy and paying kickbacks. He was ordered to pay $43,000 in restitution, and was given time served on a 24 month sentence after appealing his conviction. Miller pleaded guilty to defrauding the government, while Barr was put into a pretrial diversion program. Air Force technician Nikkos Hamlett, who also was involved in the scam, pleaded guilty and received five years probation.
The Government Accountability Office discovered the scandal in 2014, when it found that Tricare had paid $259 million for compounded prescriptions, an increase of $250 million from 10 years earlier. The GAO recommended Tricare engage in stricter enforcement of its regulations, spurring scammers to rake in cash while they still could.
The Justice Department has successfully indicted and sentenced 74 people involved in the scam, with 50 more convicted and awaiting sentencing. More than $280 million has been returned to Tricare thus far.
At least 100 pharmacies have been implicated in the scheme, and more convictions could be forthcoming as prosecutors race against the clock to secure indictments. A significant portion of the fraud occurred in early 2015, meaning law enforcement officials have until May 2020 to charge suspects before the five-year federal statute of limitations expires.
