CT Physician Committed Health Care Fraud: Feds

HARTFORD, CT — A Connecticut physician has agreed to a civil settlement of $300,000 to resolve allegations that he violated the False Claims Act, according to a statement from federal prosecutors. Dr. Phillipe Chain currently practices medicine in Florida and previously practiced medicine in Connecticut.

Chain also worked for a Nevada telemedicine company, CallMD. While there, he prescribed "compounded" medications, a process in which a pharmacist combines, mixes, or alters the ingredients of a drug to create a medication tailored to the needs of an individual patient. "Compounded" medications are not approved by the FDA.

Chain caused pharmacies to submit false claims for compounded medications to TRICARE, a government health care program the federal health care program for active duty military personnel, retirees, and their families.

He did so by issuing or approving prescriptions that were invalid because Chain did not speak with or examine the patients and did not have an established physician-patient relationship with them, according to the statement. The government also alleged that many of the prescriptions were not medically necessary.

To resolve the government’s allegations, Chain agreed to pay $300,000, which covers claims submitted to the TRICARE program from January 28, 2015 through July 28, 2015.

"We will work to aggressively protect the health care benefits for our service members, veterans, and their families," U.S. Attorney John Durham said in a statement. "Health care providers who cause false claims to be submitted to federal health care programs will be held accountable."