Providers Charged in ‘Specialty’ Drug Scheme

Pills

A pharmacist, doctor, and pharmacy technician have been charged for their alleged roles in a $7 million health care fraud scheme involving the diversion of expensive “specialty” prescription drugs. Specialty drugs are prescription medications that treat less common conditions or have other unique features. According to the indictment, pharmacist Samer N. Youssef worked with other people to identify expensive specialty drugs that he could resell. He worked with physicians such as Dr. Daoud Faraj to write medically unnecessary prescriptions for the specialty drugs – including for “patients,” who were individuals the defendants knew, including Medicare beneficiaries and some of the defendants themselves. Read a story from the Press & Guide and a Department of Justice press release.

SMP Resource Center products often contain links to copyrighted material. The SMP Resource Center is providing these links as a convenience and for informational purposes in our efforts to report and educate on Medicare fraud; they do not constitute a guarantee, endorsement, or approval by SMP of any of the information available on the external site. SMP bears no responsibility for the accuracy, legality, or content of the external site or for that of subsequent links. If you have any questions or concerns about the links provided, please contact the SMP Center at nliebau@smpresource.org.