A Texas based doctor, Grigoriy T. Rodonaia of Rodonaia Family Medicine and Aesthetics, was sentenced last month to 84 months in federal prison for his involvement in a hefty health fraud scheme. In addition to the prison sentence, Rodonaia is required to pay $195,607.76 in restitution.
The conviction comes after a more than year-long legal battle in which Rodonaia was found guilty of “12 counts of health care fraud, three counts of aggravated identity theft, and one count of making a false statement” according to a Department of Justice press release. Court documents showed records of Rodonaia issuing fake prescriptions for expensive specially compounded scar creams dating back to 2015.
The creams, which ranged in price between $9,000 and $13,000, were prescribed using the personal identification information of Rodonaia’s patients without their knowledge or consent and billed back to military health care program, TRICARE. One of Rodonaia’s friends, Christopher Quintana who worked at Memorial Compounding Pharmacy, was filling the prescriptions and would then pay Rodonaia according to court testimony.
During the five year kickback scheme, Rodonaia issued more than “600 prescriptions in the names of approximately 140 patients” resulting in $6.7 million paid by TRICARE for unnecessary medications.
The US government has been cracking down on health care fraud in recent years, as seen in this particular case which was investigated by the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the DEA, Health and Human Services, and the Texas Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. If you are under investigation for health care fraud or suspect an employee in your organization of involvement, it’s important to consult with a defense team like Padula Law to explore mitigation strategies.
