Insurance giant Geico filed suit Monday against Maccabi Pharmacy RX, Inc., its owner Yuriy Davidov, and unknown individuals in the Eastern District of New York, alleging that the defendants dispensed certain topical pain products “in place of other effective, but much-less costly prescription and non-prescription drug products.”
The plaintiff explained that the purported scheme relies upon the assistance and collusion of “prescribing healthcare providers…who work at or are associated with various multidisciplinary medical clinics that almost exclusively treated No-Fault patients.” GEICO argued that the defendants “steered” the providers to prescribe the targeted pharmaceuticals in large amounts, to be filled at Maccabi Pharmacy, in exchange for kickbacks.
The products allegedly overprescribed include lidocaine ointments and gels as well as diclofenac 3% gel.
The complaint also referred to another insurance fraud case involving the same defendants, this time surrounding Targretin 1% gel, used for the treatment of lymphoma-related lesions.
Geico is seeking to recover over $80,000 that it paid to Maccabi and a further declaration that it is not obligated to pay $670,000 in outstanding claims caused by the defendants. They are represented by Rivkin Radler, the same counsel that represented Geico in a similar insurance fraud case covered by Law Street. In that case, the defendants purportedly overbilled insurance in treating minor injuries resulting from automobile accidents.
