Michael Taba, MD, of McKinney, Texas, was sentenced to 102 months in prison for his role in a $145 million scheme to defraud the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs, according to a Feb. 24 news release from the Justice Department.
What happened?
- Between May 2014 and March 2017, Dr. Taba accepted bribes and kickbacks from pharmacy owners to prescribe medically unnecessary compound creams to injured federal workers. The pharmacy owners paid millions in illegal bribes and kickbacks. The creams were mixed at a cost of around $15 per prescription and billed to for as much as $16,000 per prescription.
- Pharmacies owned by his co-defendants billed the DOL-OWCP and Blue Cross Blue Shield more than $145 million and were paid more than $90 million for unnecessary prescriptions referred by Dr. Taba and other medical providers..
- Dr. Taba was also ordered to pay over $13 million in restitution
- On Nov. 16, 2023, a federal jury in the Northern District of Texas convicted Dr. Taba on one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and three counts of health care fraud.
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