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ORLANDO (CBSMiami/AP) — Health care fraud is an issue that continues to cause problems despite efforts on many levels to stop it.
The owner of a Florida pharmacy was sentenced to 13 years in prison for a health care kickback scheme.
U.S. Attorney Maria Chapa Lopez of the Middle District of Florida on Friday said 53-year-old Larry Howard was sentenced on Friday and ordered to pay $4.3 million in restitution and surrender two properties he purchased with the earnings.
Federal prosecutors say Howard owned Orlando-area Fertility Pharmacy, and that he was involved in a kickback scheme with two others meant to funnel patients to doctors pre-selected by Howard. The doctors would prescribe expensive pain medications and scar creams that cost up to $17,000 per bottle.
The medications were billed to TRICARE, which paid the pharmacy.
Also convicted were 52-year-old Nicole Bramwell and 57-year-old Raymond Stone, who received the kickbacks from Howard.
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
