A former Marine who took part in a scheme to defraud the military health program TRICARE out of more than $65 million was sentenced Friday to 21 months in federal prison.
Joshua Morgan, 31, who was based out of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, recruited fellow servicemembers and their dependents to seek compounded medications through fake prescriptions, which were paid by TRICARE.
Prosecutors say Morgan contributed to nearly $4.5 million in losses through beneficiaries he recruited.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says Morgan and others worked for Jimmy and Ashley Collins, a married couple who owned and operated a Tennessee medical clinic. Two doctors and a nurse practitioner at the clinic, Choice MD, wrote prescriptions for TRICARE beneficiaries who they never met or examined.
Morgan received more than $2.6 million in kickbacks for servicemembers whose prescriptions resulted in TRICARE reimbursements paid to the pharmacy, according to prosecutors.
The prosecution’s sentencing papers state that Morgan recruited 28 people but also received compensation for “hundreds of his direct submarketers’ recruits.”
Morgan was the last of 12 defendants sentenced in the case, which was prosecuted in San Diego federal court.
Others charged in the scheme include ex-Navy sailor Kyle Adams, 36, who also recruited servicemembers, resulting in more than $11 million in insurance reimbursements. He was sentenced last month to 15 months in prison. Jimmy Collins received a 10-year prison sentence, while Ashley Collins was sentenced to 18 months in home detention.
Others sentenced include the doctors and nurse practitioner who wrote the fraudulent prescriptions, and other servicemembers who recruited military personnel to take part in the fraud.
U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath said in a statement, “Today’s sentencing closes the last chapter on this outrageous fraud scheme that almost put TRICARE into bankruptcy.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said this scheme, combined with several similar other fraud schemes operated across the nation, had the healthcare program facing insolvency in mid-2015.
