INDIANAPOLIS — A 44-year-old man has been ordered to pay more than $3.3 million in restitution for a scheme that prosecutors said exploited the health care system and increased health care costs for everyone covered under a federal program.
Manuel Bojorquez, of Anaheim, California, was also sentenced to 36 months of probation with 18 months to be served on house arrest.
Bojorquez was a marketer for various Indiana-based compounding pharmacies, which prepare medicines with dosages tailored to the needs of each individual patient.
Court documents say Bojorquez used his marketing company to funnel millions of dollars to Chicago-based doctors so they would refer their prescriptions to the Indiana-based pharmacies. These bribes were referred to as "kickbacks" and prosecutors said they are illegal.
Bojorquez and his company would then get a percentage of the money paid for each prescription referred to the Indiana-based pharmacies.
Many of the patients who were receiving these prescriptions were covered under a federal health care benefit program. This means the federal government was paying for prescriptions that came at a higher cost because Bojorquez was bribing Chicago-based doctors to send their prescriptions to his pharmacies.
Ultimately the federal government paid more than $8 million for these prescriptions.
"Paying kickbacks in exchange for the referral of federally covered prescriptions is a serious crime," said U.S. Attorney Zachary Myers. "[Bojorquez] chose to illegally enrich himself by exploiting our health care system. These crimes increase health care costs for everyone covered by the programs."
Justin Campbell, IRS special agent in charge explained Bojorquez not only committed fraud against a government health care program, but also "corrupted the objectivity of the physicians involved."
Bojorquez's case was the last in a series of related investigations over the last four years. Those investigations led to an Indianapolis chiropractor being convicted for paying and receiving kickbacks. It also led to Indiana-based compounding pharmacies agreeing to pay $4 million to health care programs.
