Newark, N.J. – A New Jersey marketing company executive has been held accountable for his role in a scheme to defraud public and private health benefits programs of over $6 million for the billing of medically unnecessary compounded prescriptions.
Michael Drobish, 46, of Cedar Grove, New Jersey, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for his role in the scheme. He was also sentenced to three years of supervised release.
The scheme, which lasted from April 2014 to January 2017, involved Drobish and his marketing company hiring sales representatives to target individuals who had insurance plans that covered compounded medications. The sales representatives would convince those individuals to obtain prescriptions for compounded medications, regardless of medical necessity, often by providing them with cash payments.
The individuals would then be directed to certain telemedicine companies, which the marketing company or its affiliates paid to issue the prescriptions. The prescribing physicians at the telemedicine companies would write the prescriptions without performing any examination or after conducting cursory examinations that were insufficient to deem a compounded drug medically necessary.
Once the prescriptions were written, they would be filled by compounding pharmacies with which Drobish conspired. The compounding pharmacies would receive reimbursement from the insurance plans, and would pay Drobish’s marketing company a percentage of the reimbursement amount.
As a result of the scheme, Drobish and his co-conspirators were able to defraud public and private health benefits programs of over $6 million.
U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger stated, ‘This defendant exploited the health care system by taking advantage of reimbursements for compounded medications that were enormously expensive but medically unnecessary.’
Related Federal Cases
- Elmostafa Charif, Designer Drug Trafficking, New Jersey 2024 · Massachusetts
- Michael Conway, Wire Fraud, New Jersey 2016 · New York
- Habib Chaudhry, Credit Card Scheme, New Jersey 2013 · New York
- Babar Qureshi, Credit Card Scheme, New Jersey 2024 · Washington
- Jeffrey Pearlman, Fentanyl Kickback Scheme, New Jersey 2017 · Connecticut
Key Facts
- State: New Jersey
- Category: White Collar Crime,Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
ðŸâ€Â’ Get the grimiest stories delivered weekly. Subscribe free →
