Rivkin Rounds’ first annual Fraud Week kicks off with kickbacks. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced that the owner of Boerne Drug in Boerne, Texas was indicted on conspiracy charges for his role in an alleged kickback scheme. According to DOJ, pharmacy owner Lucky S. Ott and his co-conspirators offered and paid bribes to prescribing physicians to get them to prescribe expensive drugs.

The scheme, which ran from 2017 to 2019, allegedly included prescriptions for patients whose information was obtained through the fraudulent use of a telemedicine call center. The conspirators are accused of paying more than $1 million in kickbacks and receiving more than $10 million in reimbursements from insurers, including Medicare and Tricare. If convicted, Ott faces up to 15 years in prison.