Seven medical practitioners in Brooklyn are facing charges with a combination of 477 offenses related to medical misconduct. Many of these offenses are very serious and include the criminal sale of a prescription for a controlled substance, health care fraud, scheme to defraud Medicare and Medicaid, unlawfully selling prescriptions, and more. Several physicians and their office staff were caught in this scheme by a wiretap through the DEA and the Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Prescription Drug Investigation Unit.
Those charged were running three Brooklyn medical clinics where the criminal activity took place. In addition to the charges listed above, the physicians were billing for unnecessary medical tests and illegally and illegitimately selling oxycodone to patients when those patients did not have a true medical reason for it. Two of the clinics were found to have sold over 3.7 million oxycodone pills over the last five years and generated revenue of upwards of $16 million. The third clinic generated over $8 million in revenue and illegally sold over 2.6 million pills over the last 3.5 years.
This is one of the most severe cases of billing fraud and illegal pill prescriptions seen in New York. Therefore, it is evident that these medical professionals will not only face criminal charges but will likely never practice medicine again. However, those charged in this massive scheme are innocent until proven guilty so it will be interesting to see how the convictions play out.
If you require a medical law attorney for your legal matters, call Paul E. Walker, an experienced New York City OPMC & OPD Lawyer. Please contact the Walker Medical Law firm to set up a free initial consultation.