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This week in Newark federal court, the former co-owners of a New Jersey marketing company were sentenced for their roles in an $8.8 million scheme to defraud public and private health benefits programs.

U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip Sellinger announced Dec. 18 that Lisa Curty, 46, of Staten Island, and Christine Myers, 38, of Phillipsburg, were each sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison. The two had each previously pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

According to prosecutors, the two defendants participated in a conspiracy between February 2015 and February 2017 that involved submitting fraudulent prescriptions to public and private insurance plans for compounded medications – specialty medications mixed by pharmacists to meet a specific need of a patient, such as scar or wound creams and metabolic supplements/vitamins.

Prosecutors say the scheme centered on the discovery that certain insurance plans paid for these medications at exorbitant reimbursement rates.

“Curty and Myers exploited this opportunity by creating a New Jersey marketing company and hiring sales representatives to target individuals who had insurance plans that covered compounded medications,” according to case documents and court statements released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey. “The sales representatives then convinced those individuals to obtain prescriptions for compounded medications, regardless of medical necessity, often by providing them with cash payments. The individuals were then directed to certain telemedicine companies, which the marketing company or its affiliates paid, to receive the prescriptions.”

Prosecutors alleged that once the prescriptions were written, they were filled by certain pharmacies with which the marketing company conspired: The compounding pharmacies received reimbursement from the insurance plans, paying a percentage of that amount to Curty and Myers’ marketing company, which then provided a commission to sales representatives.

“These two defendants are just the latest in a long line of schemers who took advantage of publicly and privately funded insurance plans, raiding them for millions of dollars in fraudulent reimbursements for compounded medications,” said Sellinger. “We will continue to prosecute those who take advantage of our health care system to generate illicit income.”

“The volume of cases involving compound medication fraud has moved beyond frustrating for law enforcement, with an arrest, conviction or sentencing happening almost every other day in New Jersey,” said FBI-Newark Special Agent in Charge James Dennehy. “The fraudsters committing these crimes aren’t paying attention to the fact that everyone doing the same thing is going to federal prison. This is the FBI and our law enforcement partners screaming in the town square, you will be next if you continue to break the law.”

The two defendants were also sentenced to two years of supervised release and ordered to pay $8.2 million in restitution by U.S. District Judge Katharine Hayden.

See also:

• Former NJ business owner sentenced for role in $6M scheme
• Randolph man sentenced for role in compound prescription scheme
• South Jersey man sentenced for role in health care fraud scheme