By Emery Akin,
TRUSSVILLE, Ala. ( WIAT ) — A Trussville man will pay over $1 million in restitution after pleading guilty to his part in a multimillion-dollar kickback and health care fraud case, prosecutors have announced.
John Alan Robson, 40, pleaded guilty Thursday to health care fraud conspiracy, U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona stated in a press release. In February 2023 , Robson faced five charges of health care fraud conspiracy, kickback conspiracy and kickbacks.
According to the plea agreement, Robson was a sales representative who marketed various health care products and services, including topical prescription creams from specialty pharmacies, durable medical equipment and electro-diagnostic testing to doctors’ offices. Robson was paid fees for the prescriptions, DME and tests he generated from doctors.
Escalona said that as far back as 2014 through 2018, Robson conspired with others to pay and receive kickbacks by inducing medical providers to issue medically unnecessary prescriptions and order medically unnecessary goods and services. These were then billed to Medicare and other health insurers.
Two of the sales reps named in Robson’s indictment, Brian Bowman, 42, of Gadsden, and James Ewing Ray, 53, of Gadsden, engaged in the same conspiracy and each pleaded guilty to health care fraud conspiracy.
Dozens of other defendants across the state have been convicted in related cases.
As part of their respective plea agreements, Bowman will pay $7.6 million in restitution while Ray will pay over $800,000.
The FBI, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of the Inspector General aided in the investigation.