Alabama Man Sentenced in Dollar 54 Million bribery: A Huntsville resident, James Wesley Moss, aged 60 and part-owner of Florida Pharmacy Solutions (FPS), has been sentenced to over two years in federal prison. The Justice Department revealed his involvement in a $54 million bribery and kickback scheme targeting the government health insurance program for current and retired military members and their families.
Moss, along with FPS part-owner David Byron Copeland and lead sales representative Michael Gordon, engaged in “test billing” to maximize reimbursement from TRICARE, the government health insurance program. The scheme involved bribing and offering kickbacks to doctors treating TRICARE beneficiaries to encourage prescription referrals to FPS. Lavish hunting trips, expensive dinners, and other inducements were used.
FPS employees utilized “blanket letters of authorization” to alter prescription components for increased profitability. Moss paid Copeland and Gordon kickbacks based on a percentage of TRICARE reimbursements, creating an incentive to seek prescriptions for high-cost compounded drugs like pain and scar creams.
Copeland facilitated kickbacks through his companies, receiving a four-year, three-month prison sentence, while Gordon received 18 months. The company billed TRICARE over $54 billion from late 2012 to mid-2015. Another co-defendant, Edward Christopher White, previously received a two years and nine months prison sentence for his involvement in the scheme.
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