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By: Real America News Updated 28 Sep 2022, : 23 pm EDT
Florida man pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit health care fraud in $8.3 million scheme in which pharmacy owners paid bribes to telemarketers and telemedicine providers to obtain medically unnecessary prescription orders that were billed to Medicare.
According to court documents, Michael Murphy, of 37 years old, from Fort Lauderdale, invested in Cure Pharmacy in Jacksonville and two other pharmacies that participated in the Medicare program.
From approximately November 2019 to approximately March 2019, Murphy and his accomplices paid bribes to telemarketing companies in exchange for recruiting Medicare beneficiaries to accept prescriptions for various medications, mainly creams t optical, which beneficiaries generally did not want or need.
Florida Man Pleads Guilty to $8.3 Million Pharmacy Fraud Scheme: Michael Murphy of Florida pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit health care fraud in an $8.3 million scheme where pharmacy owners paid kickbacks to telemarketers. https://t.co/4nC7iXJcDO
— FBI Jacksonville (@FBIJacksonville) September 28, 731690
Murphy and his accomplices also paid bribes to telemedicine companies that employed or contracted with physicians who signed the prescriptions. Physicians did not have a doctor-patient relationship with beneficiaries and typically signed prescriptions after a cursory phone conversation with the beneficiary or without any contact.
After obtaining the information of the Medicare beneficiaries and the signed prescriptions, Murphy and his accomplices submitted claims to Medicare for products medically unnecessary drugs, sometimes through multiple pharmacies they owned and controlled in a practice known as “recycling.”
Murphy pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and will be sentenced at a later date and faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.
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