Florida man pleads guilty in $8.3 million pharmacy fraud scheme

FLORIDA — A Fort Lauderdale man is facing a potential sentence of 10 years in prison for his role in an $8.3 million pharmacy fraud scheme, the U.S. Department of Justice has announced.

According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), Michael Murphy, 37, of Fort Lauderdale, pleaded guilty last week to conspiring to commit health care fraud.

The DOJ said the $8.3 million scheme involved pharmacy owners who allegedly paid kickbacks and bribes to telemarketers and telemedicine providers to secure orders for medically unnecessary prescriptions that were billed to Medicare.

According to court documents, Murphy invested in Cure Pharmacy in Jacksonville and two other pharmacies that participated in the Medicare program. From in or around November 2019 through or around March 2021, Murphy and his co-conspirators are said to have paid kickbacks and bribes to telemarketing companies in exchange for recruiting Medicare beneficiaries to accept prescriptions for various medications – mainly topical creams – which the beneficiaries usually did not want or need.

Murphy and his co-conspirators also paid kickbacks and bribes to telemedicine companies that employed or contracted with physicians who signed the prescriptions, the DOJ said.

According to the DOJ, the physicians had no physician-patient relationship with the beneficiaries and typically signed the prescriptions after a cursory telephone conversation with the beneficiary or with no contact at all.

After obtaining Medicare beneficiary information and the signed prescriptions, Murphy and his co-conspirators submitted claims to Medicare for medically unnecessary medications, sometimes through multiple pharmacies they owned and controlled in a practice known as “recycling,” and were reimbursed $8.3 million by Medicare Part D, the DOJ said.

Murphy pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. Murphy will be sentenced at a later date and faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.

A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.