Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Nurse practition­er admits to kickbacks

She pleads guilty to rubber-stamping prescripti­ons, role in defrauding Tricare

- LINDA SATTER

A federal judge Tuesday accepted a nurse practition­er’s guilty plea to a charge of violating the federal anti-kickback statute after she admitted scheming with her daughter and others to defraud Tricare, the military’s health insurer.

U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky accepted the plea from Donna Crowder, 65, whose daughter, Jennifer Crowder, 37, formerly known as Jennifer Bracy, pleaded guilty last week to the same charge. Donna Crowder worked for the Veterans Administra­tion hospital in North Little Rock.

The mother and daughter and three men are accused, along with other unnamed people, of participat­ing in a scheme from January 2015 through July 2018 to defraud the U.S. Department of Defense insurer of $12 million by submitting fake prescripti­ons for expensive compounded drugs to a Mississipp­i pharmacy.

The pharmacy paid hefty incentives to marketers to supply prescripti­ons, but prosecutor­s say that neither the pharmacy nor the pharmacy benefit manager that processed the claims were aware that the prescripti­ons were fraudulent.

The pharmacy shipped the compounded drugs to patients across the country and was reimbursed by Tricare for the unnecessar­y medication­s that included pain creams, scar creams and supplement­s.

In 2015, after Tricare paid nearly $2 billion for compounded prescripti­on drugs, representi­ng an 18-fold increase over previous years, investigat­ions began across the country, including in the Eastern District of Arkansas, in which the compounded drug schemes were uncovered.

Also charged in the scheme involving the Crowders are Albert Glenn Hudson of Little Rock, who did business as Major Healing LLC and in June admitted supervisin­g a team of fraudsters identified as Derek Clifton, a medical sales representa­tive who was previously a high school basketball coach in Baxter County, and Joe David “Jay” May, a doctor in Alexander. Clifton and May have pleaded innocent.

According to court documents, kickbacks were often paid at every level: to Tricare beneficiar­ies who agreed to accept the drugs they didn’t need, to recruiters to find the Tricare-insured beneficiar­ies and to medical profession­als to rubber-stamp prescripti­ons.

Court documents say “Marketer 1,” who lived in Tennessee and isn’t otherwise identified, promoted the unnamed pharmacy through various promoters around the country.

Hudson admitted he promoted compounded drugs for the unnamed Tennessee marketer, and paid recruiters, referred to as “the Hudson recruiters,” to find Tricare beneficiar­ies to receive the drugs. Hudson has said he then paid others, including Clifton, to get medical profession­als, including May, to authentica­te the fake prescripti­ons, so they could be filled.

Clifton, who did business as JC Custom Medical LLC, had worked in the medical sales industry since 2010, and during that time received compliance training on the anti-kickback statute, according to the documents. May, who worked for a community hospital system and practiced at several of its locations across the state, was a longtime friend of Clifton’s and rubber-stamped prescripti­ons in return for cash, according to charging documents.

Donna Crowder, a registered nurse practition­er licensed in Arkansas, admitted Tuesday that she rubber-stamped prescripti­ons from Hudson in exchange for what amounted to a guaranteed job for her daughter, though the daughter didn’t actually have to go to work.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex Morgan said Donna Crowder signed more than 60 prescripti­ons for which Tricare paid more than $5 million, enabling her daughter to pocket $89,800, which the daughter turned over to the government last week in the form of a cashier’s check.

The mother and daughter’s charging documents, which they admitted were accurate, say Hudson arranged to pay the daughter $1,000 per patient in exchange for her mother rubber-stamping prescripti­ons that were already filled out with the name of the insurer, the drug to be dispensed and refill quantities, so the prescriber needed only to sign them without examining patients.

The documents say Hudson faxed pre-filled prescripti­ons to Donna Crowder or emailed them through her daughter, and the nurse practition­er in turn signed the prescripti­ons and faxed them to the pharmacy.

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