Orange County prosecutors recently charged 26 business owners, pharmacists, and doctors in a $40 million kickback scheme in Southern California. The defendants defrauded nearly 13,000 workers’ compensation insurance patients by overcharging for medication and prescribing unnecessary treatment.
Allegedly, the owners of two medical billing and management companies organized the effort involving pharmacists and doctors who were paid a kickback for prescribing and upselling drugs with no known medical benefits. Participating doctors and companies allegedly wrote off their kickback payments as “marketing expenses” to cover up the fraud. Over four years, the defendants were paid out approximately $23.2 million by billing at least 27 insurance companies a total of $40 million.
Read the California Department of Insurance’s full press release on the matter here.