On Friday, Acting United States Attorney Jeffrey M. Anderson announced that a former Janesville pharmacy owner had been sentenced to prison for health care fraud. 55-year-old Mark Johnson of Janesville, Wisconsin was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison for health care fraud. Johnson is scheduled to begin serving his sentence in October of this year.
On August 4, 2016, it was announced that Johnson had been arrested after the unsealing of a 46-count indictment was returned by the grand jury. Johnson was charged with health care fraud, making false statements in a health care fraud audit and identity theft. On May 24, 2017, the defendant pleaded guilty to Count 1 of the indictment.
It was alleged that Johnson had defrauded Medicaid and Medicare from January 2008 to March 2014. At the time, Johnson was a licensed pharmacist and he was the owner and president of Kealey Pharmacy and Home Care Inc., which was located in Janesville. The retail pharmacy provided prescription drugs to consumers.
Kealey received reimbursement in various forms, including in the form of payments from Medicare and Medicaid. Johnson was accused of submitting false claims to Medicaid and Medicare to obtain reimbursements for medications that were not actually provided to beneficiaries. Johnson also created false prescription orders using the identities of physicians. Then, he submitted claims for reimbursement for those false orders.
In 2013, the State of Wisconsin Department of Health Services conducted an audit. During the audit, Johnson lied to the department. During the course of the fraud scheme, the defendant acquired approximately $740,000 in fraudulent prescription reimbursements. Johnson has been sentenced to 24 months in federal prison.