Ex-pharmacist gets 10 years in prison for $180M health care fraud
Mitchell Barrett was sentenced by US District Judge Keith Starrett in Hattiesburg, Mississippi
A former Mississippi pharmacist was sentenced on Tuesday to 10 years in prison for a healthcare fraud that resulted in more than $180 million in false billings being submitted to private insurers and the federal TRICARE program for military service members, of which more than $50 million was paid out by the government.
Mitchell Barrett was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Keith Starrett in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, the U.S. Justice Department announced. He had pleaded guilty to conspiracy last August.
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"Mr. Barrett accepts the outcome of today's sentencing hearing," said John Moore, a lawyer for Barrett.
Prosecutors accused Barrett, 55, of defrauding TRICARE and private insurers by distributing medically unnecessary compounded medications while practicing as a pharmacist in Mississippi, where he co-owned multiple compounding pharmacies.
Compound drugs are made by pharmacists combining multiple drug substances, and are supposed to be tailor-made for individual patients. Prosecutors said Barrett and his co-owner, David Rutland, devised compound drugs intended to secure the maximum reimbursement from insurers and effectively marketed them as products to doctors.
Close up of a mature man taking a vaccine in his doctors office
Prosecutors said that Barrett and Rutland periodically altered these prescription formulas as reimbursement rates changed. They said they paid "recruiters" commissions based on reimbursement to bring in prescriptions.
Barrett also solicited business by routinely waiving co-pays for health plan beneficiaries, and used a sham co-pay assistance program to make it appear that his businesses had been collecting co-pays, according to prosecutors.
Rutland was sentenced to five years in prison last year.
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The case is United States v. Barrett, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Mississippi, No. 20-cr-16.
For the government: Emily Cohen and Alejandra Arias of the U.S. Justice Department Criminal Division; and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathlyn Van Buskirk of the Southern District of Mississippi
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For Barrett: John Moore of the Law Offices of John D. Moore; Lisa M. Ross and Gene Besen of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings