Years before Hattiesburg businessman Wade Walters was indicted on 37 charges related to a $510 million health care fraud, his name circulated in federal documents as one of four people who planned and orchestrated the plot.
In earlier court documents, Wade is mentioned as one of the perceived masterminds of the conspiracy that led to about half a billion dollars in false or fraudulent claims filed with TRICARE, the health benefits program of the military, Medicare and other health benefits providers.
Walters is accused of weaving a tangled web with more than a dozen co-conspirators who created a series of “high-heeled compounded medications” that were expensive and deemed medically unnecessary, then found ways to entice doctors and nurse practitioners to sign preprinted prescriptions for patients, including those they never examined.