MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) – A civil judgment was entered Monday against a Mississippi man for orchestrating a commission-based referral scheme that targeted federal health care programs and violated the False Claims Act and the Anti-Kickback Statute, Acting U.S. Attorney Keith Davidson said Thursday.
A federal judge entered judgment against Robert L. Crites, 67, of Bates, Mississippi, in the amount of $31,039,134.82. Crites owns Health Services Plus and TriCom LLC and worked as a contractor for Extraordinary Scripts Inc.
According to court records, Crites and others associated with Extraordinary Scripts participated in an illegal kickback scheme in which they identified and referred patients nationwide to Cloverland Pharmacy in Montgomery, Alabama. Crites primarily recruited beneficiaries of TRICARE, the health care program for members of the U.S. military and their families. In turn, the pharmacy paid Crites and his co-conspirators kickbacks for each referral.
The Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits offering, paying, soliciting or receiving compensation to induce referrals for items or services reimbursable by federally funded health care programs. The statute is designed to safeguard medical decision-making by ensuring patient care is not influenced by improper financial incentives.
The judgment against Crites includes $16,342,424.82 in damages — three times the $5,447,474.94 in losses sustained by TRICARE, as required under the False Claims Act — as well as $14,696,710 in civil penalties imposed by the court.
Crites was the last remaining defendant in the case. The United States previously settled with five other co-defendants named in the suit, as well as others involved in a parallel civil forfeiture action.
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