Orlando Pharmacy Owner Gets 13 Years For Health Care Fraud

The owner of an Orlando pharmacy was sentenced to 13 years in prison for a health care kickback scheme.

U.S. Attorney Maria Chapa Lopez of the Middle District of Florida on Friday said 53-year-old Larry Howard was sentenced on Friday and ordered to pay $4.3 million in restitution and surrender two properties he purchased with the earnings.

Federal prosecutors say Howard owned Orlando-area Fertility Pharmacy, and that he was involved in a kickback scheme with two others meant to funnel patients to doctors pre-selected by Howard. The doctors would prescribe expensive pain medications and scar creams that cost up to $17,000 per bottle.

The medications were billed to TRICARE, which paid the pharmacy.

Also convicted were 52-year-old Nicole Bramwell and 57-year-old Raymond Stone, who received the kickbacks from Howard.

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