By the Associated Press
BIRMINGHAM — The former co-owner of an Alabama pharmacy has pleaded guilty in what prosecutors describe as a scheme involving improper billing for medication.
Jeffrey Black, 55, of Destin, Florida, pleaded guilty Friday to multiple felony counts, according to a statement from federal prosecutors in Birmingham.
Black is a former co-owner of Northside Pharmacy, in Haleyville, which did business as Global Compounding Pharmacy.
The company billed insurers for medically unnecessary prescription drugs, prosecutor said.
Black would hire people on medical plans and get them to obtain prescriptions for unnecessary drugs for themselves, relatives and friends and then pay them a commission, prosecutors said. Black and a relative personally were accused of getting a number of prescriptions for scar and wound creams, including several for more than $20,000 per tube.
Nearly two dozen people have pleaded guilty including other company executives.