September 8, 2020
David Lieberman and Bruce Judge discussed the scourge of compounding fraud in New Jersey with The Press of Atlantic City. The article, South Jersey prescription fraud ring follows national playbook, concerns a compounding fraud scheme targeting New Jersey state employees.
We have reported on and discussed compounding fraud schemes several times on this blog. David and Bruce spoke with Press of Atlantic City staff writer Claire Lowe providing national context regarding the New Jersey scheme. David noted that the scheme bears similarity to national compounding fraud cases. However,
This is actually one of the first ones that I’ve seen that exclusively targets state employee benefits. The schemes usually center around TRICARE
David also explained that the schemes turn on compounders’ ability to bill government health care for non-FDA approved ingredients. That, in turn, allows fraudsters to manipulate the prices of these drugs. In many cases, the government pays thousands of dollars for pain and scar creams that do little to help patients.
Bruce also weighed in on the nationwide scope of this investigation.
What that indicates is that federal law enforcement has been investigating this in a way that’s expanded significantly the scope of the criminal activity. And it also highlights the scale, the dollar amounts that were being generated through this compounding pharmacy scheme that, in this case, was victimizing the public employee plan for the state of New Jersey.
David also highlighted the important role that whistleblowers play. He noted that the government learns of schemes such as these in one of two ways:
One is what we do. We have people of conscience come to us and say this is wrong I know it’s wrong what do we do about? The other is increasingly the government is running analytics on its own claims.
Read the full story, South Jersey prescription fraud ring follows national playbook in Press of Atlantic City.