Doctors indicted in $100 million Tricare fraud case
A Valley physician is among a dozen doctors, pharmacy owners and marketing pros accused of a kickback scheme that prosecutors allege involved a sham medical study used to bilk up to $102 million from the publicly-funded federal health program for military family members.
Walter Neil Simmons, 47, of Gilbert, an emergency medicine doctor who has worked at two metro Phoenix hospital chains, was indicted in October in U.S. District Court in Dallas on one count of conspiracy to commit health-care fraud. The federal charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.
Federal prosecutors said the scheme involved prescribing “compounded” drugs such as pain, scar and migraine creams to military families covered by Tricare, the federal health insurance program for active-duty and retired military and family members.
There have been at least two other federal probes alleging pharmacies paid kickbacks to doctors who ordered expensive compounded drugs for patients.
