U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo has announced the sentencing of William Stephan, a 65-year-old doctor from Tonawanda, NY. Stephan was convicted of misprision of felony and sentenced to one year probation and 100 hours of community service by U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles M. Kruly explained that Stephan, who runs a family practice in Tonawanda, signed prescriptions for compounded medications at the request of Erik Berg in April 2015. Over several months, Stephan signed prescriptions for 19 patients presented by Berg, which were already filled out with details including refills. The prescriptions were signed based on Berg's claims that there was a medical need, without Stephan noting the number of refills authorized.
The prescribed medications had high reimbursement rates averaging over $16,000 per prescription. Health care benefit programs reimbursed $8,750,315 for these prescriptions and their refills. It was revealed that pharmacy benefit managers would not have approved these prescriptions if they had known about the pre-filled nature and lack of specific medical need tailored to individual patients.
Stephan also signed compounded prescriptions for others including Scott Trapp and Michael Luehrsen. In June 2016, Express Scripts, Inc. audited certain prescriptions written by Stephan during which he and Berg completed audit forms falsely claiming he wrote them himself despite lacking doctor-patient relationships with those involved.
Berg and Luehrsen have been previously convicted and are awaiting sentencing while Trapp has been convicted and sentenced.
This case stems from an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation under Acting Special Agent-in-Charge Mark Grimm's direction.
