Civil and criminal charges have been filed by New York State against pharmacist Hin T. Wong of Manhattan and NY Pharmacy, Inc., for allegedly defrauding the New York State Medicaid program out of millions of dollars.
Wong, a licensed pharmacist and owner of NY Pharmacy, allegedly paid undercover agents posing as Medicaid recipients kickbacks for HIV prescriptions and for referring other Medicaid recipients to bring their prescriptions to NY Pharmacy.
Wong and NY Pharmacy also allegedly billed and eventually were paid over $60,0000 by Medicaid for refills on prescriptions submitted by undercover agents that NY Pharmacy either did not dispense or were predicated on the payment of a kickback.
Various state laws and Medicaid regulations prohibit the payment of kickbacks for the referral of patients or individual prescriptions.
In addition to the criminal charges, the state has filed a civil asset forfeiture action seeking over $11 million in damages from Wong, NY Pharmacy, and two other pharmacies owned by Wong that are now closed.
According to prosecutors, the on-going investigation into NY Pharmacy revealed that on multiple occasions between July 2014 and August 2017, Wong allegedly paid kickbacks to undercover agents posing as patients to fill prescriptions, most of which involved medication to treat HIV, at NY Pharmacy or at two other pharmacies she owned. The defendants thereafter allegedly submitted claims for reimbursement to Medicaid through NY Pharmacy for refills that were not dispensed by the pharmacy, a scheme known as “auto-refilling,” the government asserted.
The state also alleged that Wong personally made millions from the scheme and used the proceeds, among other things, to make lavish credit card purchases of high-end retail items (including Prada and Vuitton), and to pay for travel expenses and expensive furniture. According to the government, an investigational audit uncovered evidence indicating that Wong's pharmacies had not purchased enough medication to support their billings to Medicaid.
Prosecutors charged that between January 1, 2014 and August 1, 2017, Wong's pharmacies billed Medicaid and other insurers over $15 million for medications, but allegedly purchased only a fraction of the amount of drugs necessary to fill those prescriptions. As part of the civil action, the government obtained a court order freezing the bank accounts held by the defendants.
Steven A. Meyerowitz
Steven A. Meyerowitz, a Harvard Law School graduate, is the founder and president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. He may be contacted at [email protected].