Pharmacies Charged with $33 Million Prescription Kickback Conspiracy
Department of Justice – Two pharmacy executives and a pharmacist have been charged with billing Medicare and TRICARE for medically unnecessary prescriptions, costing the programs over $33 million.
William B. Welwart and Ethan B. Welwart of New York—owners and executives of the involved pharmacies—and Gary Kaczka of New Jersey—pharmacist-in-charge at one of them—are accused of a scheme that paid kickbacks to marketing companies to generate medically unnecessary prescriptions. They allegedly conspired with telemarketers to persuade healthcare beneficiaries to try expensive medications with high reimbursement rates, such as pain creams, scar creams, eczema creams, and migraine medications, and to refer them to telemedicine providers to write prescriptions, which were then billed to Medicare and TRICARE.
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