Jason May, Pharmacy Fraud, Mississippi 2017

In a shocking case of healthcare corruption, two men have pleaded guilty to their roles in a multi-million dollar compounding pharmacy health care fraud conspiracy in Mississippi.

Jason May, 40, of Lamar County, Mississippi, and Gerald Jay Schaar, 46, of Biloxi, Mississippi, entered guilty pleas on July 25, 2017, before U.S. District Judge Keith Starrett.

May, a co-owner and pharmacist in charge of Advantage Pharmacy, received approximately $192 million in reimbursements from TRICARE and other health care benefit programs for compound topical creams. He selected formulas for the compound creams based on reimbursement rates as opposed to medical efficacy.

A total of $192 million in reimbursements from TRICARE and other health care benefit programs were received by Advantage Pharmacy under May’s leadership.

May and Advantage Pharmacy either did not collect patient copayments for the compound topical creams or paid copayments on behalf of beneficiaries. As a co-owner of Advantage Pharmacy, May received a portion of the reimbursements associated with the fraudulently obtained compound creams and transferred certain of those proceeds from the fraud – in transactions greater than $10,000 – into a money market account held in his name.

Schaar, on the other hand, pled guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud for his role in a fraudulent scheme in which he, acting as a marketer for a pharmacy located in Lamar County, solicited physicians and other medical professionals to write prescriptions without seeing patients for compound topical creams dispensed by the pharmacy.

The charges against May and Schaar were brought as a result of the largest ever national health care fraud enforcement action by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, involving 412 charged defendants in 41 federal districts across the country.

The maximum penalty for May faces five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, while Schaar faces ten years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Jason May and Gerald Jay Schaar will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Keith Starrett on October 17, 2017 in Hattiesburg.

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