Coast pharmacy, Biloxi doctor illegally profited from push of costly drugs, lawsuit says
A whistleblower lawsuit filed in federal court accuses now-closed The Gardens Pharmacy in Ocean Springs, along with a Biloxi doctor and his son, of defrauding Medicare and the military insurance program TRICARE.
The civil lawsuit alleges the pharmacy, through now-deceased Gardens pharmacist Clark Levi, submitted fraudulent bills to Medicare and TRICARE for costly compounded drugs covered under the insurance programs. Gardens’ insurance billings were fraudulent, the lawsuit says, because sales agents received sales commissions, which the lawsuit calls “kickbacks,” for referring doctors to the pharmacy for the prescriptions.
Doctors also had to opt out of automatic refills for the prescription creams that Gardens compounded.
The cost of the compounded drugs ranged from under $1,000 to as much as $10,000.
The lawsuit says Albert Tsang of D’Iberville operated separately as a “one-person sales team” with one client, father Brian Tsang. Brian Tsang is a pain-management doctor who runs PainStop Spine Clinic in Biloxi.
Albert Tsang referred his father to Gardens for the compounded prescriptions, the lawsuit says, with sales commissions paid for those referrals. The pharmacy and the Tsangs violated federal law because a doctor’s family member is prohibited from receiving financial benefits from the doctor’s Medicare prescriptions.
Pharmacist says she found fraud
Robyn Turner, the former pharmacy manager at Gardens, filed the whistleblower lawsuit. She passed away in October 2019, but her estate is now pursuing the case.
Clark Levi also died tragically, in a car accident with his wife. He was not named as a defendant in the case.
The attorney representing Turner’s estate in the case, Mitchell P. Hasenkampf of New Orleans , said he could not comment on the pending lawsuit. The Gardens Pharmacy was granted an extension until May 8 to respond to the lawsuit. Attorneys for Gardens did not respond to an email from the Sun Herald seeking comment.
The Tsangs have not responded to the lawsuit.
Turner says in the lawsuit that she went to work at Gardens in February 2013, was promoted six months later to pharmacy manager, and continued in the job until February 2014.
She was an experienced pharmacist and pharmacy manager. “Questionable business practices,” she said, forced her to resign.
Turner found that sales teams were leaving prescription pads with doctors for the expensive compound creams that Medicare or TRICARE covered. They followed up with the pharmacist to check on their commissions, she said.
“Sales agents talked openly about their commission relationship as they reported weekly to one of the pharmacy’s owners, Clark Levi, about the doctors the agents were targeting that week,” the lawsuit says.
“Clark Levi oversaw the commission payments to sales agents,” it says.
“ . . . Though Clark Levi spoke openly about the commissions paid to most of the sales teams, he was particularly secretive about his dealings with Albert Tsang.”
Turner said she met with resistance when she tried to stop automated refills included with the prescription pads because the refills “generated substantial profits” for the pharmacy and the Tsangs.
Turner was trying to follow a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ruling in 2013 that prohibits automated refills, she said.
Whistleblower case filed under seal
Turner filed her whistleblower lawsuit under seal in October 2018, giving the U.S. Justice Department time to decide if its civil division wanted to handle the case, as provided under the False Claims Act.
The case was unsealed after the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Mississippi’s Southern District declined in December 2019 to intervene. The government is tracking the case and has reserved the right to become directly involved.
U.S. Attorney Michael Hurst has assigned to the case to Assistant U.S. Attorney Angela Williams from the Jackson office. Williams recently served as an attorney in another whistleblower lawsuit, winning a Medicare fraud verdict against Ted and Julie Cain of Stone County Hospital.
The allegations in Turner’s civil lawsuit are similar to those that have resulted in the largest TRICARE fraud criminal investigation and prosecution in Mississippi history. That investigation has so far netted doctors, pharmacists, nurse practitioners, a pharmacy owner and a pharmaceutical salesman, among others involved in the scheme that falsely billed TRICARE for compounded medications.
Clark Levi moved his pharmacy in early 2018 from Gardens in downtown Ocean Springs to the iconic Lovelace Drugs on Washington Avenue, where he owned the building.
The FBI raided Lovelace Drugs in May 2019, but would not comment on its search of the drugstore or the reasons for the investigation.
Levi told the Sun Herald at the time that he had no idea why Lovelace was raided.
Months later, Levi’s wife was driving their 2019 Porsche Boxster when it rounded a curve on Shearwater Drive in Ocean Springs and hit a tree, killing the couple.
Lovelace Drugs has closed and is up for sale.
No criminal charges had been filed against Levi prior to his death.
If Turner’s estate is successful in proving fraud against Gardens and the Tsangs, it would share in any recovery of TRICARE and Medicare funds, a feature of the whistleblower law.
