WASHINGTON – A Fort Myers man is among three men sentenced Tuesday in connection with a $54 million bribery and kickback scheme involving TRICARE, a federal program that provides health insurance benefits to active duty and retired service members and their families.
David Byron Copeland, 55, of Tallahassee, was sentenced to four years and three months in prison following his conviction at trial in June for paying and receiving health care kickbacks. James Wesley Moss, 60, of Huntsville, Alabama, and Michael Gordon, 60, of Fort Myers, were sentenced to two years and three months and one year and six months in prison, respectively, following their guilty pleas to a kickback and fraud conspiracy, among other charges.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Moss was a part-owner and CEO of Florida Pharmacy Solutions (FPS), a Florida-based pharmacy that specialized in compounded prescription drugs.
Copeland was also a part-owner and senior sales manager at FPS, and Gordon was a lead sales representative.
Moss, Copeland, and Gordon, along with their accomplices, engaged in a practice known as “test billing” to develop the most expensive combination of compounded drugs to maximize reimbursement from TRICARE.
Moss, Copeland, Gordon, and their accomplices targeted physicians who treated TRICARE beneficiaries and paid bribes and kickbacks to physicians and salespeople to encourage the referral of prescriptions to FPS. The bribes included lavish hunting trips and expensive dinners.
In addition, FPS employees used “blanket letters of authorization” that allowed FPS to modify the prescription components to make them more profitable.
Moss paid Copeland and Gordon millions of dollars in kickbacks based on a percentage of the amount that TRICARE reimbursed for their prescriptions, which provided an incentive to seek prescriptions for the most expensive compounded drugs possible, including pain and scar creams.
Copeland facilitated the kickbacks through companies he set up to receive and funnel the payments. From late 2012 through mid-2015, FPS billed TRICARE over $54 million for its compounded pharmaceuticals.
In April, co-defendant Edward Christopher White of Panama City Beach was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison after pleading guilty for his role in the scheme.
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