An Alexander doctor was sentenced Thursday to eight and a half years in federal prison for his role in a $12 million kickback conspiracy involving prescription drugs.
Joe David “Jay” May, 42, also was ordered to pay $4.63 million in restitution to Tricare, the military’s health insurer, according to a news release from the office of Jonathan D. Ross, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas.
His crimes involved paying and receiving kickbacks for writing prescriptions for compounded drugs, which are medications mixed specifically for an individual patient. Tricare paid more than $12 million for the prescriptions.
In 2020, May was indicted on 22 counts that included conspiracy, wire fraud, mail fraud, violating the anti-kickback statute, lying to the FBI, falsifying records, and aggravated identity theft. In June 2022, a jury in U.S. District Court in Little Rock convicted May on all 22 counts after a six-day trial.
As part of the scheme, recruiters found people in the military and veterans who had Tricare and filled out prescriptions for compounded drugs in their names — selecting which drugs to supply, typically the most expensive, and how many refills to authorize, the news release said.
“All that was missing were prescriber signatures,” the news release said. “So, middlemen routed the pre-filled prescriptions to medical professionals, like May, to be rubber stamped without consulting the ‘patient’ or any regard for whether drugs were needed.”
Tricare paid more than $12 million for prescriptions generated in this scheme, part of a wave of fraudulent schemes around the country that saw the insurer spend more than $2 billion for compounded prescription drugs in 2015, according to the news release.
Before May went to trial, nine defendants pleaded guilty to their roles in the Tricare scheme. They are: Kenneth Myers Jr., of Alpharetta, Georgia, formerly of Little Rock; Albert Glenn Hudson of Sherwood; Derek Clifton of Alexander; Donna Crowder of North Little Rock; Jennifer Crowder, formerly Bracy, of Little Rock; Keith Benson of North Little Rock; Keith Hunter of Little Rock; Angie Johnson of North Little Rock; and Blake Yoder of Scott, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
The United States has recovered nearly $8 million in restitution, forfeiture, and fines from the co-conspirators.
“Our healthcare system is built on trust, and those who abuse it do so at their peril,” Ross said in a statement.
May’s attorney, Shelly Hogan Koehler of the law firm Snively Fairrell & Koehler of Fayetteville, told Arkansas Business in June that she planned to file an appeal after May was sentenced.
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