MISSISSIPPI
A Hattiesburg, Mississippi man plead guilty this week for his role in a $200 million compounding pharmacy scheme to defraud health care benefit programs, including TRICARE, according to officials.
TRICARE is a program that covers U.S. military service members and their families.
Glenn Doyle Beach Jr., 46, plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and tax evasion, before U.S. District Judge Keith Starrett of the Southern District of Mississippi.
Beach was charged in May 2018 in a 26-count indictment and had been scheduled to begin trial this week.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 2, according to authorities.
“Glenn Doyle Beach and his co-conspirators stole hundreds of millions of dollars from federal health care programs, including TRICARE, which provides benefits to brave members of our military and their families,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski. “The Criminal Division remains dedicated to rooting out and punishing this kind of misconduct, and to protecting America’s important health care programs from fraud and abuse.”
“While our men and women in uniform were defending the freedoms and values we hold dear, this defendant was selfishly stealing precious money and resources from their military healthcare system, TRICARE, to the detriment of us all,” said U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst of Mississippi. “Our investigators and prosecutors are to be commended for their steely resolve in rooting out corruption and administering justice for victims. We will not stop until every last person involved in this criminal scheme has been brought to justice.”
Beach was an owner and the managing member of Advantage Pharmacy of Hattiesburg.
At the hearing this week, Beach admitted his role in a scheme to defraud health care benefit programs, including TRICARE, by marketing medications known as compounded medications, which ordinarily are medications that are specially combined or formulated to meet the individual needs of patients.
Beach admitted, however, that through Advantage Pharmacy of Hattiesburg, he formulated compounded medications without regard to the individual needs of the patients, but instead in order to increase reimbursements paid by health care benefit programs, officials said.
Furthermore, Beach admittedly created a fictitious paper trail to mislead insurance auditors who attempted to uncover the fraud.
Beach further detailed a money laundering and tax evasion scheme that he and other co-conspirators used to conceal the fraudulent proceeds and evade taxes.
From approximately April 2012 through January 2016, health care benefit programs, including TRICARE, reimbursed Advantage Pharmacy and other pharmacies involved in the scheme at least $200 million, Beach admitted.
The government seized more than $6 million in cash and other assets from Beach, which will be forfeited in connection with his guilty plea.
Since 2017, 11 other individuals involved in this scheme have pleaded guilty, and one was convicted at trial. The investigation is ongoing.