An information filed on Feb. 5 accuses Mr. Justice of conspiring to use the physician’s registration number between 2005 and March 2009 to prescribe hydrocodone and alprazolam (Xanax). Mr. Justice also aided and abetted healthcare fraud by billing the government for work supposedly performed by a physician when it was in fact performed by nurse practitioners and physicians’ assistants, according to the report.
An information usually indicates that the defendant is cooperating with the government, according to the report. The filing comes as part of an investigation into an alleged prescription pill ring involving Justice Medical and two Sav-Rite pharmacies, which filled the bogus prescriptions.
In March 2009, Justice Medical was raided in connection to the pill ring, and in Dec. 2009, John Theodore Tiano, MD, admitted that he allowed Justice Medical to use his name to prescribe pills and to bill Medicare for medical services he did not perform. He received nearly $120,000 from the scheme, according to the report.
Dr. Tiano and Mr. Justice both face up to 14 years in prison if convicted on all charges, according to the report.
A second physician, Augusto T. Abad, MD, was accused of similar charges to Dr. Tiano and allegedly allowed Justice Medical to use his DEA number between Jan. 2008 and March 2009, according to the report. A plea hearing for Dr. Abad has been scheduled for Feb. 26.
Read the Gazette’s report on Justice Medical Complex.
