Source: Justice.gov
Two men have admitted defrauding New Jersey state health benefits programs and other insurers out of $25 million by submitting fraudulent claims for medically unnecessary prescriptions, Acting U.S. Attorney William E. Fitzpatrick and New Jersey Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino announced.
Matthew Tedesco, 42, a pharmaceutical sales representative from Linwood, New Jersey, and Robert Bessey, 43, of Philadelphia, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler in Camden federal court to separate informations charging them with conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
From January 2015 through April 2016, Tedesco, Bessey, and others persuaded individuals in New Jersey to obtain very expensive and medically unnecessary compounded medications from an out-of-state pharmacy. The conspirators learned that an another entity would reimburse pharmacies thousands of dollars for a one-month supply of certain prescription compounded medications, including pain, scar, antifungal, and libido creams, as well as over $10,000 per month for certain vitamin combinations.
Compounded medications are supposed to be specialty medications mixed by a pharmacist to meet the specific medical needs of an individual patient. Although compounded drugs are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), they are properly prescribed when a physician determines that an FDA-approved medication does not meet the health needs of a particular patient, such as if a patient is allergic to a dye or other ingredient.
The conspirators also learned that the Pharmacy Benefits Administrator managed the prescription drug benefit for some New Jersey state and local government and education employees, providing pharmacy benefit management services for the State Health Benefits Program, which covers qualified state and local government employees. The Pharmacy Benefits Administrator would pay prescription drug claims and then bill the State of New Jersey for the amounts paid.
The Pharmacy Benefits Administrator paid Compounding Pharmacy over $50 million for compounded medications mailed to individuals in New Jersey. Over $25 million of that was for prescriptions arranged by Tedesco and the conspirators working for him. Tedesco admitted receiving approximately $11,166,844.20 for submitting those fraudulent claims. He paid some of that money to the conspirators who worked for him. Bessey received approximately $485,540.09 for his role in the scheme.
“Using a network of recruiters, doctors, and state and local government employees, the defendants defrauded the state of New Jersey and other health insurers out of millions of dollars by getting reimbursed for phony prescriptions on expensive and medically unnecessary compounded medications,” Acting U.S. Attorney Fitzpatrick said. “This conduct, which fraudulently exploited state health benefits programs and left New Jersey taxpayers on the hook for millions in losses, is especially brazen in an era when health insurance is a constant concern for many Americans.”