The chief compliance officer of a defunct pharmacy holding company was found guilty of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and wire fraud Thursday for unnecessarily billing Medicare for more than $50 million in medical supplies.

Steven King, of Florida, was convicted by a federal jury for his misconduct at A1C Holdings, which ran pharmacies across several states, including Michigan-based All American Medical Pharmacy, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced in a press release.

King, along with his alleged co-conspirators, exploited Medicare beneficiaries by billing for lidocaine and diabetic testing supplies that were neither required nor requested by patients. These actions defrauded Medicare and violated pharmacy benefit manager regulations, the DOJ stated.

King and his associates took steps to conceal their fraudulent activities, including enrolling their mail order pharmacies as brick-and-mortar retail locations to bypass stricter oversight, shipping prescription refills for high-reimbursing medications without patient consent, hiding the ownership of A1C and its pharmacies, and transferring patients between pharmacies without their consent, the DOJ said. As CCO, King had the authority to prevent and expose the scheme but chose not to, the DOJ noted.

King faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 14.

Jeff Dale is Managing Editor, Editorial Projects and Analytics, at Compliance Week. He previously served as Compliance Week's Digital Editor and has worked as a copy editor at the Boston Herald and city editor at The Hour Publishing Co. in Norwalk, Conn.View full Profile

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