Health Care Fraud: Howard Randall Thomley pled guilty To Defraud Health Care Benefit Programs

<h2>Mississippi Man Pleads Guilty To Health Care Fraud For His Role in &dollar;200 Million Compounding Pharmacy Scheme<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Hattiesburg&comma; Miss – Howard Randall Thomley&comma; 60&comma; of Hattiesburg&comma; pled guilty yesterday before U&period;S&period; District Judge Keith Starrett to a Criminal Information charging him with health care fraud for his role in a &dollar;200 million scheme to defraud health care benefit programs&comma; including TRICARE&comma; announced U&period;S&period; Attorney Mike Hurst&comma; Special Agent in Charge Christopher Freeze with the Federal Bureau of Investigation&comma; Special Agent in Charge Thomas J&period; Holloman III of IRS Criminal Investigation’s Atlanta Field Office and Special Agent in Charge John F&period; Khin of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service’s Southeast Field Office&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Thomley will be sentenced by Judge Starrett on July 2&comma; 2019 and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>During his guilty plea&comma; Thomley admitted that&comma; from approximately August 2012 through January 2016&comma; he conspired with others to carry out a scheme to defraud TRICARE&comma; which is a federally funded health care benefit program that serves United States <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;category&sol;military-scammer&sol;" title&equals;"military" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" data-wpil-monitor-id&equals;"398">military<&sol;a> personnel and their families&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Thomley owned and operated a company called Advantage Marketing Professionals&comma; which marketed medications for Advantage Pharmacy&comma; a compounding pharmacy in Hattiesburg&period; For each prescription submitted by Thomley&comma; Advantage Marketing Professionals and Thomley would receive a percentage of the revenue that Advantage Pharmacy obtained from TRICARE&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Thomley and others associated with Advantage Marketing Professionals recruited beneficiaries of TRICARE and paid them a percentage of the revenue from each prescription – including refills – that they and their families accepted&comma; in order to induce the beneficiaries to accept millions of dollars of expensive compounded medications that were not medically necessary&period; In order to obtain prescriptions&comma; Thomley and his co-conspirators filled out pre-printed prescription forms with the beneficiaries’ names&comma; and obtained prescriber signatures&comma; knowing that the medical professional prescribing the medication had not examined the recruited beneficiaries&period; Sometimes&comma; the prescribers had previously signed blank prescription forms&comma; which were later filled in by Thomley or his co-conspirators&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Advantage Pharmacy&comma; upon receiving prescriptions&comma; filled the prescriptions&comma; dispensed compounded medications&comma; and submitted claims to TRICARE&comma; received reimbursement&comma; and disbursed a portion of those payments to Thomley&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>TRICARE paid approximately &dollar;3&period;6 million in reimbursements for medications sent to the beneficiaries recruited by Thomley and his co-conspirators&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;This nefarious and complex health care fraud scheme was one of the largest in Mississippi&&num;8217&semi;s history&comma; and possibly one of the largest in our nation&&num;8217&semi;s history&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said Special Agent in Charge Freeze&period; &&num;8220&semi;Billions of taxpayer dollars are lost to heath care fraud each year&comma; and conspiracies against Tricare strip benefits directly from our military&&num;8217&semi;s brave men and women and their families&period; This guilty plea brings this case one step closer to justice and shows the unwavering commitment&comma; of all of the partnering agencies&comma; to uncover&comma; investigate and prosecute dishonest and unethical physicians&comma; health care providers and any others associated with America&&num;8217&semi;s health care system&period; The collective resources of law enforcement at all levels will continue to expose these types of corruption and will actively seek justice for those who participate in these schemes&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation&comma; Internal Revenue Service &&num;8211&semi; Criminal Investigation&comma; and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service&comma; among other agencies&period; It is being prosecuted by DOJ Trial Attorneys Kate Payerle and Jared Hasten of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section&comma; Assistant U&period;S&period; Attorneys Mary Helen Wall of the Southern District of Mississippi and Sean Welsh of the Western District of Virginia&comma; formerly of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section &lpar;MLARS&rpar;&comma; with the support and assistance of Trial Attorney Amanda Wick of MLARS&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Fraud Section leads the Medicare Fraud Strike Force&comma; which is part of a joint initiative between the Department of Justice and HHS to focus their efforts to prevent and deter fraud and enforce current anti-fraud laws around the country&period; Since its inception in March 2007&comma; the Medicare Fraud Strike Force&comma; which maintains 14 strike forces operating in 23 districts&comma; has charged nearly 4&comma;000 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than 14 billion&period;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;p>&NewLine;