John Alan Robson, Health Care Fraud, Alabama 2024

A Trussville man has been charged in a multi-million-dollar health care fraud case.

A federal grand jury returned a five-count indictment against John Alan Robson, 40, of Trussville, on charges of health care fraud conspiracy, kickback conspiracy, and kickbacks.

According to the indictment, Robson was a sales rep who marketed to doctors' offices various health care products and services, including prescription drugs from specialty pharmacies, durable medical equipment (DME), and electro-diagnostic testing.

Robson was paid fees for the prescriptions, DME, and tests he generated from doctors. From at least 2014 through 2018, Robson allegedly conspired with others to pay and receive kickbacks to induce medical providers to issue medically unnecessary prescriptions and order medically unnecessary goods and services, which were then billed to Medicare and other health insurers.

One of those services was electro-diagnostic testing provided by a Huntsville-based electro-diagnostic testing company called QBR, or Diagnostic Referral Community. Robson received per-patient payments from QBR for inducing medical providers to order tests from QBR.

The case against Robson is related to several other cases that have resulted in convictions in the last year. Dr. Eric Beck, 64, of Huntsville, pleaded guilty last year to health care fraud conspiracy for his role in the QBR scheme. John Hornbuckle, 53, of Huntsville, pleaded guilty to health care fraud and kickback conspiracy offenses for his role as QBR's CEO in orchestrating the fraud.

James Ewing Ray, 52, of Gadsden, pleaded guilty to health care fraud and kickback conspiracy for his role as a sales rep who marketed QBR's scheme to medical practices and received kickbacks per test ordered. Early last year, a jury convicted Dr. Mark Murphy, 65, and his wife Jennifer Murphy, 66, both of Lewisburg, Tennessee, of drug distribution, fraud, and kickback crimes.

The maximum penalty for conspiracy to commit health care fraud is ten years in prison; the maximum penalty for conspiracy to receive kickbacks is five years in prison; each kickback count also carries up to ten years. The FBI and HHS-OIG investigated the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys J.B. Ward is prosecuting the case.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndal/pr/trussville-man-charged-multi-million-dollar-kickback-and-health-care-fraud-case