A Milwaukee man has plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States after he took part in a health care kickback scheme that saw him receive $411,738 in illegal payments.
Gregory Owens owned and operated
GRO Family Services, an alcohol and drug abuse treatment clinic in Milwaukee. Owens is not a licensed medical provider.
In October 2017, Owens allegedly entered into an agreement with the owners of
Noah Associates in Milwaukee to refer GRO’s clients to Noah. This included clients with Medicare and Wisconsin Medicaid coverage.
GRO clients were sent to Noah Assoc. for urine drug tests, with some of those tests being paid for by Medicare or Medicaid coverage. Noah Assoc. would then pay Owens for these client referrals.
"To order the tests for which he received kickback payments, Owens used, without authorization, the signature of a medical doctor to order urine drug tests for GRO's clients from Noah," according to a complaint in the case.
Owens received approximately $18 for each urine sample sent to Noah from GRO, court documents show.
The owners of Noah also agreed that Owens would receive additional payments in exchange for arranging for Jessie Crawford Recovery Center in Madison to order drug tests for its clients from Noah.
"A person may not offer, pay, solicit, or receive anything of value in exchange for the referral or order of any services paid for by Medicare or Wisconsin Medicaid. Such payments constitute illegal kickbacks," according to the complaint.
To hide these payments, the owners of Noah agreed to send money to Owens’ wife. The pair wrote over 95 checks between November 2017 and February 2019, court documents show. During that time, they paid $150,707 to Owens’ wife.
Between January 2019 and September 2020, $261,031 in additional payments were made.
Owens faces up to five years in prison once he is sentenced. He’s also agreed to pay restitution in the amount of $411,738 to Wisconsin Medicaid.
The owners of Noah Assoc. were not named as defendants in the complaint.
