Anonymous ID: dea8f8 Dec. 17, 2018, 4:16 p.m. No.4352360   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>2840

Six Michigan Physicians Charged in $464M Pain Pill Conspiracy

 

Federal prosecutors have charged six Detroit-area physicians with fraudulently billing Medicare, Medicaid, and Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan in connection with a scheme to hook patients on opioids and then require them to undergo unnecessary procedures to get more pills.

 

In a December 4 indictment filed in US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, the six doctors were charged with illegally billing $464.4 million "for services and equipment that was medically unnecessary, not eligible for reimbursement, and/or not provided as represented." That sum includes allegedly fraudulent claims for $182.5 million to Medicare, $272.2 million to Medicaid, and $9.2 million to the Michigan Blues.

 

According to the indictment, the scheme began in January 2013 and continued through November 2018. During this period, the six physicians allegedly wrote prescriptions for more than 13 million dosage units of opioid drugs, including oxycodone, oxymorphone, hydrocodone, and hydromorphone. The indictment charges the defendants with "unlawful distribution of controlled substances outside the usual course of professional medical practice."

 

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/906615?src=soc_tw_181218_mscpedt_news_mdscp_pillmill&faf=1