Former RICO Prosecutor Offers Insider Tips for Avoiding Opioid and Prescription Fraud Investigations

The Barone Defense Firm is pleased to announce that Patrick Barone and Keith Corbett will be co-presenting to the Oakland County Bar Association’s Medical Legal Committee on April 4, 2019. Their presentation will offer attendees an insider view of the federal government’s tactics, objectives and methods of conducting an opioid fraud investigation. They will also offer tips for avoiding governmental scrutiny as well as what to do when contacted by the government.

Mr. Corbett will take the lead role in this presentation.  He is an entertaining and informative speaker and will draw upon the wealth of knowledge and experience gained over the three decades he spent under the employ of the Department of Justice (DOJ), the institution charged with the investigating and prosecuting Medicare fraud. As Chief of the Organized Crime Strike Force for the United States Attorney’s Office, Mr. Corbett gained invaluable insight into what happens “behind the curtain” of the government’s opioid investigations.  He will use this knowledge to provide seminar attendees with insider tips for avoiding the scrutiny of the Federal Government and offer advice for how to handle the threat of prosecution when such scrutiny becomes unavoidable.

This topic is currently of great concern to all health care professionals and the attorneys representing them due to the increasing federal pressure to investigate and hold responsible all health care professionals who engage in prescription fraud, with a special emphasis on cases involving opioids. For example, the Department of Health and Human Services announced late last year that they would spearhead a much more aggressive stance on prescription fraud, with a focus on stemming the opioid crisis in America. These increased efforts included the dispatch of 300 new prosecutors whose efforts will be supervised by an Opioid Coordinator in each Department office.  The number of prosecutions and excluded providers is expected to increase in 2019.

The Department further indicated that since July 2017, it has excluded nearly 4,000 providers and individual from Medicare and Medicaid for conduct related to opioid prescription fraud including diversion and abuse, including more the 500 doctors, nurses, pharmacists or pharmacy service providers. Unfortunately, innocent individuals may inadvertently come under governmental security costing ten or even hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend.  The sheer number and scope of the investigations helps demonstrate why this is true.

Mr. Corbett has fashioned this presentation to address many simple to deploy measures that healthcare professionals can immediately use to stay “under the radar.”The Oakland County Bar Association’s Medical Legal Committee consists of physicians and attorneys involved with the inter-professional concerns common to both professional groups.  For more information and to make arraignments to attend, please visit the Oakland County Bar Association’s web site.