U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced Tuesday that a Central New York man has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to pay and receive health care kickbacks. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
According to Assistant U.S. Attorneys Franz M. Wright and Paul E. Bonanno, Timothy Klein, of Fayetteville, operated JRS Group, LLC, and between February 2017 and September 2018 conspired with others to defraud Medicare and Medicare drug plan sponsors. Investigators say Klein and his co-conspirators submitted prescription drug claims for medically unnecessary items, obtained through kickbacks and bribes, and diverted the proceeds for personal gain.
As part of the scheme:
- Klein recruited insurance brokers to offer prescription medicines to Medicare beneficiaries at no cost, regardless of medical need, paying kickbacks for prescriptions billed through the federal Part D program.
- Klein paid Advanced Telehealth and its staff to perform telemedicine visits for recruited beneficiaries. The doctors involved would sign prescriptions pre-selected or filled out by Klein.
- Klein also received payments from pharmacies, including ProRX and SunRise Pharmacy, for each prescription filled. In one instance, he received a $95,479.05 check from ProRx in September 2018 for prescriptions referred to the pharmacy.
The plea stems from an investigation led by the FBI, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the New York State Department of Financial Services, the U.S. Department of Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Klein is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo on June 2.
