Elan Yaish, $32 Million Health Care Kickback Scheme, New Jersey 2024

NEWARK, N.J. – Former pharmacy president Elan Yaish, 54, of Israel, was sentenced to 36 months in prison for his role in a health care kickback conspiracy involving prescriptions for Medicare and TRICARE beneficiaries, U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Vikas Khanna announced today.

Yaish previously pleaded guilty on Aug. 16, 2023, before U.S. District Judge Esther Salas to an information charging him with conspiracy to violate the Federal Anti-Kickback statute.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court, Yaish participated in operating pharmacies, including Apogee Bio-Pharm LLC, in Edison, New Jersey. He and others agreed to engage in a scheme to pay marketing companies to direct prescriptions for expensive medications to the pharmacies.

The marketing companies identified Medicare and TRICARE beneficiaries to target for expensive drugs and contacted the beneficiaries by telephone to pressure them to agree to try expensive medications, such as pain creams, scar creams, eczema creams, and migraine medication. The marketing companies then transmitted recordings of telephone calls with the beneficiaries, together with pre-marked prescription pads for particular drugs that would yield exorbitant reimbursements, to telemedicine companies.

The marketers paid the telemedicine companies kickbacks for every beneficiary referred for a prescription, and the telemedicine companies paid doctors to approve the prescriptions. The marketing companies then directed the prescriptions to pharmacies, including Apogee, with which they had kickback arrangements. The pharmacies filled the prescriptions and sought reimbursement from federal health care benefit programs, including Medicare and TRICARE. The pharmacies, including Apogee, then paid a portion of each reimbursement to the marketing companies as a kickback.

As a result of the scheme, Yaish and his conspirators caused a loss to Medicare and other federal health care benefit programs of over $32 million.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Salas sentenced Yaish to three years of supervised release and ordered restitution of $32 million.

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