Man found guilty in Georgia Medicaid scam

Megan Matteucci

A federal jury found a Miami man guilty Monday of running a million-dollar Medicaid scam in Georgia.

Varian V. Scott, 36, was convicted in U.S. District Court in Atlanta of running a healthcare conspiracy between September 2005 and April 2006.

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Prosecutors said Scott forged doctors’ prescriptions for expensive cancer and HIV drugs, causing the costs of those medications to be billed to through Georgia Medicaid.

The result was a $1.1 million loss to state and federal taxpayers, according to Acting U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates.

Scott’s cousin, Hezron Collie, 29, of Atlanta, was also charged.

Prosecutors said Collie bought blank doctors’ prescription pads at Emory University’s Winship Cancer Institute and two other doctor’s offices, including one in Atlanta.

Scott and Collie also bought names, birthdates and Medicaid identification numbers for dozens of patients in Georgia, according to Yates. They then used that information to forge 164 prescriptions for numerous drugs and purchase them at pharmacies throughout metro Atlanta, she said.

Prosecutors say the men obtained Neupogen, a chemotherapy drug, and other drugs used to treat HIV.

“Now, more than ever, it is imperative that federal funds within the health care arena be directed towards those that need it. Those that choose to exploit and defraud these government programs also are depriving many people in need of the medical care that these programs provide,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Gregory Jones said in a statement.

The two defendants also recruited a Publix pharmacist and a pharmacy technician at a Kroger to help with the scam, Yates said.

After getting the drugs, the two transported them to south Florida, where they sold the drugs to a company that paid them 30 percent of the wholesale cost, Yates said.

The two men were indicted in December 2008. In June, Collie pleaded guilty to conspiracy and healthcare fraud.

The Publix pharmacist, who federal prosecutors did not identify, pleaded guilty in Gwinnett County Superior Court in January and is awaiting sentencing. The Kroger pharmacy technician was not charged, but cooperated with investigators, prosecutors said.

Scott faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on each of the 21 counts. He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 14.