Eric Van Vleet was charged for his role in a scheme to defraud Medicare by billing for medically unnecessary prescriptions. According to the indictment, he operated Hype Med LLC, which generated medically unnecessary prescriptions through a telemarketing and telemedicine scheme. Call center employees contacted beneficiaries by telephone to pressure them to agree to try expensive medications, such as pain creams, scar creams, eczema creams, migraine medication, and a combination of prescription medications intended to be used as a “foot soak.” Van Vleet and Hype Med then transmitted recordings of telephone calls with the beneficiaries, together with premarked prescription pads for particular drugs that would yield exorbitant reimbursements, to telemedicine companies. Hype Med paid the telemedicine companies kickbacks for every beneficiary referred for a prescription, and the telemedicine companies paid doctors to approve the prescriptions. Read a Department of Justice press release.