Two Hattiesburg residents pleaded not guilty Tuesday in U.S. Southern District Court as part of four Pine Belt residents who have been accused of defrauding insurers of more than $200 million, according to indictments unsealed in federal court Monday.
Hope Evangulane Thomley and Howard Randall Thomley were each released on $250,000 bond and other conditions after their arraignments before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael T. Parker Tuesday morning.
The Thomleys are scheduled for a jury trial on Aug. 20 before District Judge Keith Starrett. Other dates set by Parker include a plea agreement deadline of Aug. 1, pretrial hearing and motion deadline of Aug. 9 and exhibit and witness list deadline of Aug. 13.
In the indictments that were opened in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District’s Eastern Division, prosecutors say pharmacy owners bribed health care providers to prescribe handcrafted high-dollar medications that were in many cases unnecessary.
Beach of Sumrall pleaded not guilty Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael T. Parker and was released on $25,000 bail. Gregory Parker of Laurel did not enter a plea and was released on $25,000 bail.
Indictments against the Thomleys, Beach and Parker were filed May 15. The Thomleys and Beach were associated with Advantage Pharmacy, one of the businesses that authorities place at the center of the scheme. Advantage pharmacist Jason May of Hattiesburg and marketer Jay Schaar of Gulfport pleaded guilty earlier.
The pharmacy fraud scheme involved Beach, May and others, who figured out how to make compounded medications that insurers would pay high prices for, “regardless of the individual medical needs of the beneficiaries or the effectiveness of the high-yield compounded medication,” according to the indictment. Some prescriptions were worth more than $10,000 apiece.
Marketers recruited dentists, physicians, nurse practitioners and others to writing bogus prescriptions to patients they never examined, prosecutors claim.
“The defendants and their co-conspirators created pre-printed, check-the-box prescription forms,” the indictment states. Pharmacy owners allegedly paid kickbacks of a certain percentage of revenue to prescribers as well as the marketers they signed up. Prosecutors document millions in payments to marketing companies they say made the kickbacks.
“The government believes Hope Thomley is a bad and greedy person with millions of dollars in dirty money,” wrote lawyer Paul Calli in February in a parallel civil case. “It could not possibly be more wrong about her. Hope is a wife, mother, and grandmother. A former health care executive, Hope is a self-made woman who has worked hard and worked honestly for everything that she has.”
As part of the prosecution, the government is trying to seize $17 million in cash, six vehicles and 16 pieces of real estate from the Thomleys and Beach. Those assets have been frozen in the civil case for more than two years pending the criminal investigation.
Among the health care professionals already convicted is Dr. Albert Diaz, a 78-year-old Ocean Springs physician sentenced to 3½ years in prison. Susan Perry, an Alabama nurse practitioner, also has pleaded guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 20.
One product Advantage offered was a “dietary supplement” made with over-the-counter ingredients for which insurers paid thousands of dollars per bottle, according to court documents.
“Get me rolling on dietary supplements,” the indictment alleges Parker texted to Hope Thomley in 2014. “I need to make some cash, and I think I can burn through a lot of that stuff!”
Another formulation contained ketamine, a controlled substance, it said. The Thomleys face additional charges for dispensing that without a valid reason.
Prosecutors say Advantage also waived copayments under the table, even though it wasn’t supposed to, because the conspirators knew patients would refuse expensive medications if they had to pay.
Among the conditions of release for the Thomleys are reporting to the Probation Office after the arraignment Tuesday, surrendering passports, avoiding contact with potential witnesses or victims and refraining from possessing a firearm or any excessive use of alcohol.
The specific charges in the indictment include:
• Howard Randall “Randy” Thomley (24 counts) – Six counts each of health care fraud and payment to a non-licensed physician, five counts of sale, distribution or dispensing a controlled substance, two counts each of conspiracy and fraud – money laundering and one count each of attempt and conspiracy, conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and racketeering – money laundering.
• Hope Thomley (23 counts) – Six counts each of health care fraud and payment to a non-licensed physician, five counts of sale, distribution or dispensing a controlled substance, two counts of fraud - money laundering and one count each of attempt and conspiracy, conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, conspiracy and money laundering.
• Glenn “Doyle” Beach Jr. (16 counts) – Six counts each of health care fraud and payment to a non-licensed physician, two counts of fraud - money laundering and one count each of attempt and conspiracy, conspiracy and racketeering - money laundering.
• Gregory Grafton Parker (8 counts) – six counts of health care fraud and one count each of attempt and conspiracy and statement or entries generally.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
