A Little Falls man entered a guilty plea on charges of a conspiracy to commit health care fraud related to an alleged compounded prescription drug scheme Wednesday.
Between December 2014 and March 2016, Thomas Bowers, 46, recruited patients, some of them family members, whose prescription drugs were covered by the New Jersey School Employee Health Benefits Program.
Those patients obtained medically unnecessary compounded drug prescriptions in return for payments from Bowers. Pharmacists paid the marketing firm that employed Bowers a portion of the money they received from the health benefit programs earned from the patient referrals.
The charge Bowers pleaded guilty to can carry a penalty of up to 10 years imprisonment and fines in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Bowers has yet to be sentenced, but he agreed to give up $157,747 gained through the scheme and pay another $593,678 in restitution. He’s due to be sentenced on April 8.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Baker represented the state in the case against Bowers, while FBI Special Agent in Charge George Crouch Jr. and Defense Criminal Investigative Service Special Agent in Charge Patrick Hegarty led the investigation into the matter.
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