WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) — The U.S. Department of Justice announced allegations Feb. 23 against Diabetic Care RC LLC, which does business as Patient Care America (PCA), a compounding pharmacy in Pompano Beach, Florida. The Justice Department says the pharmacy paid illegal kickbacks to induce prescriptions for TRICARE-reimbursed drugs.
“The Department of Justice is determined to hold accountable health care providers that improperly use taxpayer funded health care programs to enrich themselves,” said Chad A. Readler, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “Kickback schemes corrupt the health care system and damage the public trust.”
TRICARE, a federally funded program, provides health care to military personnel and their families. According to allegations, the defendants paid marketing companies to target TRICARE beneficiaries. Without regard to patient need, the defendants would induce prescriptions for various pain creams, scar creams, and vitamins that were manipulated to ensure the best possible TRICARE reimbursement.
“Providers and marketers that engage in kickback schemes drive up the cost of health care because they focus on their own bottom line instead of what is in the best interest of patients,” said executive assistant Randy Hummel of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida. “We will hold pharmacies, and those companies that manage them, responsible for using kickbacks to line their pockets at the expense of taxpayers and federal health care beneficiaries.”