A Texas man was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison last week for his role in a complex, $9.6 million scheme that tricked U.S. military service members into ordering unnecessary prescriptions and testing at the expense of two U.S. government healthcare programs, prosecutors from the U.S. Southern District of Florida said.
Senthil Ramamurthy, 38, orchestrated a fraud on a national scale in a scheme starting in 2014, when Ramamurthy targeted Tricare, the U.S. military’s health insurance program, according to prosecutors.
Ramamurthy deceived his way onto U.S. military bases using “false pretenses,” prosecutors said. There, he convinced Tricare beneficiaries to sign up for compounded prescription medications, or multiple drugs mixed together for a specific patient, that they did not need, according to prosecutors. He also falsely told service members the drugs were custom mixed or free, but the service members were actually responsible for co-payments, prosecutors said. Pharmacies then received millions of dollars in reimbursement for expensive prescription orders, and paid Ramamurthy, who used to reside in Florida, some of the proceeds, according to prosecutors.