Three kickback suits involving physicians have been settled in the last month, according to the Justice Department, totaling more than $300 million.
The suits:
1. A Texas physician pleaded guilty to accepting illegal kickbacks from a compounding pharmacy Feb. 16. Jerry May Keepers, MD, 68, admitted he wrote prescriptions for OK Compounding to fill and received $25,000 from the company's representatives in 2014 in exchange for referrals. The payments were disguised as business arrangements where Dr. Keepers reportedly served as a national spokesperson and medical director for the pharmacy. He entered a plea agreement to serve 36 months of supervised probation and pay $1.5 million or less in restitution.
2. Two Laredo, Texas-based physicians were among 10 indicted in a $300 million healthcare fraud scheme Feb. 10. Jose Roel Maldonado, MD, a family medicine physician, and Eduardo Carlos Canova, MD, an internal medicine specialist, are among the providers accused of accepting kickbacks from multiple laboratories in exchange for ordering medically unnecessary lab tests.
3. Brockton Urology Clinic in Boston will pay $100,000 to settle allegations it accepted kickbacks from a hospital for services never provided. The owner of Brockton Urology, unnamed by the Justice Department, allegedly agreed to develop a prostate cancer Center of Excellence at a hospital. Brockton and the hospital never created the center, and Brockton Urology didn't provide a physician director for the program.