There will be no trial. Highly unlikely. They will all take a plea deal. Going to trial is extremely expensive and foolish.
Proove Bioscience
- Thread starter Anonymous
- Start date
-
- Tags
- None
Joe sentencing is July 26th. What kind of a sweetheart deal has he made? We’ll see, we’ll see.
that’s why Brian has been absent from twitter.
A former executive with a defunct Irvine based health sciences lab business faces federal charges alleging he paid physicians at least $3.5 million in kickbacks to induce them to order unnecessary genetic tests for Medicare and Medicaid recipients
Brian Javaade Meshkin, 45, of Ladera Ranch, who is the founder of Proove Biosciences Inc., was arraigned last week in U.S. District Court in San Diego on a multicount indictment that includes charges of conspiracy and making illegal payments.
Meshkin could not be reached Wednesday for comment.
Also named as defendants are former Proove executives Steven Samuel Fichtelberg, Kirt Thomas Pfaff and Bruce Walter Gardner. Three physicians affiliated with the National Spine & Pain Center in Virginia also are listed in the indictment as co-conspirators.
Proove offered several pharmacogenetic tests that purportedly determined a patient’s risk of abusing certain prescription opioids and how patients metabolized certain drugs. The tests were marketed primarily to physicians who specialized in pain management.
Federal agents executed a search warrant in June 2017 at Proove’s headquarters and seized records.
The indictment alleges Meshkin implemented a scheme from early 2013 until June 2017 to pay physicians kickbacks ranging from $100 to $150 for each Proove test ordered for Medicare and Medicaid recipients.
“At the direction of defendant Meshkin, Proove submitted approximately $45 million in claims to Medicare for genetic tests that were tainted by illegal kickbacks,” the indictment says. “Between 2013 and 2017, Medicare paid Proove approximately $20 million.”
The defendants allegedly concealed the scheme by falsely characterizing the bribes as clinical research fees.
As a part of the scheme, Proove employees completed clinical research forms that were supposedly being completed by the physicians, and physicians signed falsified time sheets overstating the amount of time that the physicians spent working on anything related to Proove’s genetic testing or any related clinical research,” according to the complaint.
Meshkin and some of the other Proove defendants allegedly leveraged outstanding kickback payments owed to physicians to demand that they order more tests. Likewise, when kickbacks were delayed, doctors demanded that Proove pay them before they would order additional tests, according to the indictment.
Under Meshkin’s supervision, doctors allegedly were given letter grades of “A, B, C,” etc. based upon whether they were still actively ordering tests and had patients left in their office who could be tested.
“Doctors who had stopped ordering or had tested all their patients were considered ‘inactive’ and given lower grades,” the indictment states. “Doctors who received ‘A’ or ‘A+’ grades were paid promptly to ensure that they continued to order more tests. Payments to doctors with lower grades were delayed or never made at all.”
The indictment also details a July 8, 2013, meeting between Meshkin and two medical marketers, one of whom was cooperating with law enforcement, in which he explained paying doctors’ clinical research fees to promote Proove’s genetic tests.
“Defendant Meshkin acknowledged that there were competitors but (said) that, ‘off the record, we (Proove) pay the doctors more,’ the indictment says.
On March 15, 2016, Meshkin allegedly emailed representatives with National Spine & Pain Center, who had vowed to stop offering Proove’s genetic tests to patients unless it was paid overdue kickbacks
In the email, Meshkin seemed to indicate the issue could be resolved if the practices ordered more tests, according to the indictment.
“We get a ton of emails about payment from you guys, but your volume keeps going down. It’s down 50 percent from last month,” he allegedly said in the email. “50 percent reduction in volume is completely unacceptable from our standpoint. If we could spend a little more time working on performance and volume, everything would work more effectively
Brian Javaade Meshkin, 45, of Ladera Ranch, who is the founder of Proove Biosciences Inc., was arraigned last week in U.S. District Court in San Diego on a multicount indictment that includes charges of conspiracy and making illegal payments.
Meshkin could not be reached Wednesday for comment.
Also named as defendants are former Proove executives Steven Samuel Fichtelberg, Kirt Thomas Pfaff and Bruce Walter Gardner. Three physicians affiliated with the National Spine & Pain Center in Virginia also are listed in the indictment as co-conspirators.
Proove offered several pharmacogenetic tests that purportedly determined a patient’s risk of abusing certain prescription opioids and how patients metabolized certain drugs. The tests were marketed primarily to physicians who specialized in pain management.
Federal agents executed a search warrant in June 2017 at Proove’s headquarters and seized records.
The indictment alleges Meshkin implemented a scheme from early 2013 until June 2017 to pay physicians kickbacks ranging from $100 to $150 for each Proove test ordered for Medicare and Medicaid recipients.
“At the direction of defendant Meshkin, Proove submitted approximately $45 million in claims to Medicare for genetic tests that were tainted by illegal kickbacks,” the indictment says. “Between 2013 and 2017, Medicare paid Proove approximately $20 million.”
The defendants allegedly concealed the scheme by falsely characterizing the bribes as clinical research fees.
As a part of the scheme, Proove employees completed clinical research forms that were supposedly being completed by the physicians, and physicians signed falsified time sheets overstating the amount of time that the physicians spent working on anything related to Proove’s genetic testing or any related clinical research,” according to the complaint.
Meshkin and some of the other Proove defendants allegedly leveraged outstanding kickback payments owed to physicians to demand that they order more tests. Likewise, when kickbacks were delayed, doctors demanded that Proove pay them before they would order additional tests, according to the indictment.
Under Meshkin’s supervision, doctors allegedly were given letter grades of “A, B, C,” etc. based upon whether they were still actively ordering tests and had patients left in their office who could be tested.
“Doctors who had stopped ordering or had tested all their patients were considered ‘inactive’ and given lower grades,” the indictment states. “Doctors who received ‘A’ or ‘A+’ grades were paid promptly to ensure that they continued to order more tests. Payments to doctors with lower grades were delayed or never made at all.”
The indictment also details a July 8, 2013, meeting between Meshkin and two medical marketers, one of whom was cooperating with law enforcement, in which he explained paying doctors’ clinical research fees to promote Proove’s genetic tests.
“Defendant Meshkin acknowledged that there were competitors but (said) that, ‘off the record, we (Proove) pay the doctors more,’ the indictment says.
On March 15, 2016, Meshkin allegedly emailed representatives with National Spine & Pain Center, who had vowed to stop offering Proove’s genetic tests to patients unless it was paid overdue kickbacks
In the email, Meshkin seemed to indicate the issue could be resolved if the practices ordered more tests, according to the indictment.
“We get a ton of emails about payment from you guys, but your volume keeps going down. It’s down 50 percent from last month,” he allegedly said in the email. “50 percent reduction in volume is completely unacceptable from our standpoint. If we could spend a little more time working on performance and volume, everything would work more effectively
Continuance or NO ?
July 26, 9:00am
3:20-cr-01933-WQH USA v.
[1] Donald Joseph Matthews (R) P CT (1)
Sentence w/ PSR (1)
INF 1 CT Filed: 07/14/2020 18:371
Hon. William q Hayes
July 26, 9:00am
3:20-cr-01933-WQH USA v.
[1] Donald Joseph Matthews (R) P CT (1)
Sentence w/ PSR (1)
INF 1 CT Filed: 07/14/2020 18:371
Hon. William q Hayes
that’s why Brian has been absent from twitter.
Sammy the Bull, where have you been? Continuance on the sentencing, it figures. Snitches get stitches is what we’ve always heard. Now go get another glass of MD 2020.
that’s why Brian has been absent from twitter.