The former owner of a medical supply and billing company in Rogers and its former CEO were indicted by a federal grand jury Monday on 12 counts in connection with a kickback scheme involving several doctors and medical clinics.
Hunter Matthew Burroughs, 42, who owned Common Compounds Inc., also known as CCI Billing, and Stephen Keith Andrews, 48, CCI’s former CEO, were charged with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and eight counts of wire fraud. Burroughs also is charged with another wire fraud count.
Burroughs and Andrews allegedly defrauded both federal and private workers’ compensation insurers in schemes that ran until 2017, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney for Arkansas’ Western District.
The indictment alleges that Burroughs, Andrews and other people tied to the company recruited physicians to prescribe pain creams and patches to their workers’ compensation patients by offering them a split of the profits from billing insurers, typically 50%, the news release said.
One of the doctors was Robert Dale Bernauer Sr., who ran a clinic in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Bernauer pleaded guilty to his role in the conspiracy on July 30. He has not been sentenced.
After signing contracts with physicians, Burroughs and Andrews allegedly used CCI to supply them with pain creams and patches, and to act as the billing agent for the physicians, handling all of the paperwork and submitting fraudulent claims for federal employees and private insurance companies, the news release said.
The indictment alleges that Burroughs and Andrews conspired with Bernauer and with another Louisiana doctor to have CCI send medications to the doctors, and bill insurers for their prescriptions.
CCI billed insurers at rates of anywhere from 15 to 20 times what the medications actually cost, and then paid the physicians kickbacks, the news release said. The company’s former billing director, Amanda Dawn Rains, pleaded guilty to her role in the conspiracy on Oct. 6. She is scheduled to be sentenced on March 17 in U.S. District Court in Fayetteville.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Steven Mohlhenrich and Hunter Bridges are prosecuting the case.
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