Michael Frey, M.D., a former partner at Advanced Pain Management & Spine Specialists in Fort Myers, Florida, pleaded guilty on May 18, 2018, to taking more than $470,000 in kickbacks for prescribing certain durable medical equipment and pain medications between 2010 and 2016.
Florida Spine Pain Specialist Guilty of Taking Kickbacks
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According to court documents, Frey paid medical supplier A&G Spinal Solutions $50,000 to put his wife on their payroll and giver her 10% of the profits made from equipment referrals made by Frey. The company would then allegedly file fraudulent Medicare benefit claims.
Co-conspirators Ryan Williamson and William Pierce, managing partners in the supply business, reportedly needed the money to pay a tax bill of that same amount. Both pleaded guilty to their roles in the scheme.
The court records also reportedly show that Frey put together a similar arrangement with an unnamed co-conspirator to receive a share of prescription sales.
Frey’s plea agreement included that between 2013 and 2015, he received kickbacks from sales representatives and other employees of Insys Therapeutics Inc. to receive fees for his participation in “largely bogus” Insys speaker event programs.
The Department of Justice stated that Frey will pay $2.8 million to the government as part of a civil settlement to resolve the allegations he violated the False Claims Act through receiving kickbacks.
Frey faces up to 10 years in prison. No sentencing date has been set.
Jonathan Daitch, M.D., Frey’s former business partner, said the illegal kickbacks were “concealed from other members of the practice.”
“These kickbacks were concealed from other members of the practice. Although the plea agreement alleged unlawful payments to Dr. Frey for the prescription of medical products, it is our understanding that all medical services conducted by Dr. Frey and all medical prescriptions ordered by Dr. Frey were medically necessary and provided or prescribed for the maximum medical benefit to the patient.”
“Dr. Frey has since resigned from Advanced Pain Management & Spine Specialists and I have assumed sole ownership over the practice.”
One former patient, an Army veteran, told the local NBC affiliate that during one visit about two years ago Frey prescribed a cream to help alleviate the back pain. He said Frey offered to fill the prescription on his own using a pharmacy more than 130 miles away in Stuart, Florida.
“I thought, ‘this is really, really strange,'” said the veteran. “Immediately in my head, I thought, ‘I bet he got a kickback.’”
According to Healthgrades.com, Frey graduated from Ross University, School of Medicine in Portsmouth, Dominica in 1998.
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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