Tech & Innovation in Healthcare

In a May 18, 2022 press release, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that two Florida pharmacy owners were sentenced “for their roles in a multimillion-dollar healthcare fraud scheme.”

In December 2021, Peter Bolos, of Tampa, was convicted by a federal jury of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, 22 counts of mail fraud, and introduction of a misbranded drug into interstate commerce. Bolos was sentenced to 14 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $24.6 million in restitution and $2.5 million in forfeiture. Bolos’s co-defendant, Michael Palso, also of Tampa, was sentenced to 33 months in prison and also ordered to pay more than $24.6 million in restitution.

Palso and 14 other defendants in related cases all pleaded guilty to their roles in the conspiracy.

Court documents and evidence at trial established that the defendants owned and operated Synergy Pharmacy in Florida. Synergy Pharmacy employed Scott Roix, under the direction of Bolos, Paslo, and Andrew Assad. Roix, a Florida telemarketer, operated under the name HealthRight, and created prescriptions for Synergy Pharmacy and other pharmacies involved. During the scheme, Roix used HealthRight’s telemarketing platform as a telemedicine service, where he would contact consumers and mislead them into agreeing to accept the prescriptions and to provide personal insurance information. “HealthRight then paid doctors to authorize the prescriptions through its telemedicine platform, even though the doctors never communicated directly with the patients,” the release states.

According to the 2018 indictment, the defendants allegedly conspired to defraud private healthcare benefit programs out of approximately $174 million. “The indictment further alleges that the defendants submitted not less than $931 million in fraudulent claims for payment.”