Two dozen people were sentenced April 29 following an investigation into a compounding pharmacy fraud scheme involving Haleyville, Ala.-based Northside Pharmacy, doing business as Global Compounding Pharmacy, according to the Department of Justice.
Court documents show that from 2013 to 2016, the scheme billed insurers for large quantities of medically unnecessary prescription drugs. Employees would get the drugs by changing prescriptions, adding non-prescribed drugs because insurance would pay for them.
Employees would automatically refill prescriptions regardless of patient need, waive and discount co-pays so patients would keep medically unnecessary prescriptions and bill for prescriptions without patients' knowledge, the Department of Justice said.
Because of the scheme, pharmacy benefit managers paid Global nearly $50 million in claims in a two-year period. The compounding pharmacy received more than $13 million from prescriptions that had been written by prescribers who had been bribed with cash or whose spouses worked as Global sales representatives. Global also received more than $8.4 million for prescriptions Global employees obtained for themselves.
John Jeremy Adams, 40, of Panama City Beach, Fla., president and CEO of Global Compounding Pharmacy, directed the scheme and made millions of dollars from it, according to the Department of Justice.
In May 2020, Mr. Adams pleaded guilty to 19 counts of healthcare fraud, eight counts of spending the proceeds of healthcare fraud, one count of conspiring to commit healthcare fraud and mail fraud and one count of conspiring to pay kickbacks to a prescriber. He was sentenced to more than 14 years in prison.
Court documents show James A. Mays III, 45, PharmD, of Winfield, Ala., was the pharmacist who handled Global’s compounding operation. In February, Dr. Mays pleaded guilty to 12 counts of healthcare fraud, three counts of money laundering based on spending the proceeds of healthcare fraud and one count of conspiring to commit healthcare fraud and mail fraud. He was sentenced to eight and half years in prison.