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TRENTON
- Attorney General Stuart Rabner and Criminal
Justice Director Gregory A. Paw announced
that an Ocean County residential health
care facility owner/operator was sentenced
today for illegally receiving more than
$88,000 in a pharmacy “kickback”
scam.
According
to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden
Brown, Michael Fish, 48, of Lakewood, was
ordered by Superior Court Judge Patricia
Del Bueno Cleary in Monmouth County to repay
$88,693 in restitution and to serve one
year probation. Fish has been suspended
from the Medicaid Program for five years.
Fish was sentenced pursuant to his guilty
plea to a criminal accusation which charged
him with medicaid fraud.
At
the Feb. 7 guilty plea hearing, Fish, the
owner/operator of Pharmacy Consultants LLC,
admitted that between Oct. 8, 1999 and Feb.
20, 2002, he received more than $88,000
in payments from Michael Stavitski, a pharmacist
formerly licensed in the State of New Jersey,
who owned and operated Belmar Hometown Pharmacy
located at 911 Main St., Belmar, in return
for steering residents of the Dayton Manor
Residential Health Care Facility and other
health care centers to Belmar Hometown Pharmacy
for their pharmaceutical needs. Most of
the patients steered by Fish to Stavitski’s
pharmacy were Medicaid recipients. The Medicaid
Program was billed for the prescription
claims of the Medicaid patients steered
by Fish to Stavitski.
The
laws governing the Medicaid Program prohibit
Medicaid providers from accepting anything
of value to include kickbacks in connection
with claims made to the Medicaid Program.
As
part of the Office of the Insurance Prosecutor
- Medicaid Fraud Control Unit’s investigation
of this matter, on June 18, 2004, Michael
Stavitski was sentenced to seven years in
state prison and was ordered to pay $1.1
million in restitution and penalties. He
received a seven-year Medicaid suspension
and a one-year pharmacy license suspension.
State
Investigator Ralph Anilo and Deputy Attorney
General Sherry L. Wilson were assigned to
the investigation. Wilson represented the
Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor at
the sentencing.
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