A Largo telemarketer, together with several of his companies, are to pay $2.5 million to end the dispute concerning their participation in a scheme. The latter was about helping pharmacies seek Medicare and Medicaid payments of up to $25.000 for pain medicines being retailed for less than $10. This article will tell you more about the case and will also help you find a reliable processor for your business.
Telemarketer Settling Allegations
According to a special agent at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, telemarketing fraud puts huge impediments on the way towards integrating the Medicare program in the country. By giving some of the share, pharmacies, as well as other medical companies buy the information the companies have on patients.
The Department of Justice reports that Scott Roix and the marketing companies unlawfully acquired patients’ information concerning their medical insurance. They aimed to use the data to prescribe them unnecessary pain-related products.
Specifically, these “other” companies, which helped him run his telemarketing business, have to pay $2.5 million for the resolution of the dispute concerning the violation of the False Claims Act. This has resulted in a number of cases of false claims to the healthcare programs by the federal authorities regarding fraud schemes associated with telemedicine healthcare.
According to Michael F. McPherson, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Tampa Division, the resolution of the dispute speaks of the successful joint efforts that the FBI and its law enforcement colleagues have put. The goal was to find those who were cheating the system and causing people to lose their trust in the healthcare programs backed by the federal authorities.
It’s critical for merchants in any sphere to take the time to find a secure and trustworthy payment processing company to work with. With a true payment expert like eMerchantBroker.com, which is considered an A+ company by the Better Business Bureau, you can be sure to enjoy unmatched merchant services in the industry.
No matter you’re a telemarketer or another type of legitimate high risk merchant, with EMB, you can get approved for payment processing services fast and easily. The rates are the cheapest in the market.
Details About the Telemarketing Case
This allegation settlement seems to be just the visible part of the iceberg. Since telehealth technology is growing with rapid advances, and people are increasingly spending more money on telemarketing, cases like these aren’t going to stop appearing in the near future.
According to the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, telemedicine offers great value to the U.S. citizens, but it must be kept away from being abused. Action must be taken against those who get involved in unlawful activates and want to succeed by causing harm to the federal healthcare programs and, importantly, to people paying taxes in the U.S.
Serious steps must be taken to prevent cases like the above mentioned one when some individuals obtain patients’ sensitive data, sell the prescriptions to numerous pharmacies and gain profit from payments. Roix and the marketing entities kept the sale of these prescriptions in disguise: they just represented them as marketing services in their financial documents.
The mentioned case was revealed thanks to the collaborative effort between the U.S. Attorney Offices in two districts. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jeremy Dykes, Michael Kenneth, and Jessica Sievert were responsible to handle the case with support from HHS-OIG, OPM-OIG, USPS-OIG, DOD-DCIS, and FBI.
To sum up, the efforts by the two of the U.S. Attorney Offices resulted in the resolution of the dispute concerning telemarketing businesses. Work only with a reliable merchant services provider to make headway in your space without running into obstacles.