Four charged in international health care fraud & kickback scheme

Four people, including a licensed physician, have been charged for their roles in an international telemedicine health care fraud and kickback scheme involving compound medications and durable medical equipment.

David Woroboff, 59, of Del Rey, California; George Willard, 53, of Brooklyn, Michigan; Randall Mills, 61, of Plano, Texas; and Dr. Le Thu, 66, of South Bridge, Massachusetts, are each charged by indictment with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of conspiracy to violate the federal Anti-Kickback Statute.

According to U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig, Woroboff, Willard, and Mills were high-level employees of a telemedicine company.

Beginning in May 2014, the defendants and their conspirators began to use the telemedicine company to generate a high volume of prescriptions for compounded medications—drugs that are specifically mixed based on a prescription from a doctor—without regard to medical necessity and through the payment of kickbacks.

The defendants agreed and arranged for health care providers associated with the telemedicine company to write prescriptions for compounded medications and, later, for expensive durable medical equipment (DME), without the establishment of any provider-patient relationship, in exchange for kickbacks, and in violation of certain state telemedicine laws.

Woroboff, Willard, and Mills agreed to pay approximately $35 per prescription to Thu, who wrote prescriptions without speaking to patients in exchange for those payments.

In order to encourage providers to write prescriptions without establishing a provider-patient relationship, Woroboff and Mills falsely informed providers that “nurses” had already consulted with the patients, taken their medical histories, and determined that compounded medication or DME was medically appropriate.

In reality, the “nurses” were located in the Philippines, they were not registered to practice medicine in the United States and generally, they had not spoken with the patients.

Rather, representatives of marketing companies provided patient information to the telemedicine company, which was paid simply to generate prescriptions for compounded medications and DME.

Woroboff and Willard also took additional steps to conceal their scheme, including the use of fake phone numbers and addresses for the health care providers.

The defendants caused losses to TRICARE, Medicare, and private health insurance companies of approximately $37 million.

The charge of conspiracy to commit health care fraud is punishable by a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison.

The charge of conspiracy to violate the federal Anti-Kickback Statute is punishable by a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison. The maximum fine for each count is $250,000, or twice the gross profit or loss caused by the offense, whichever is greatest.