New Port Richey pharmacy at center of federal insurance fraud indictment

A New Port Richey pharmacy is at the center of a federal indictment that accuses eight people of obtaining millions of dollars in fraudulent reimbursements from private insurance companies, Medicare and the Tricare military health care program.

Five of those named in the indictment are from New Port Richey — Nicholas A. Borgesano Jr., 43; Edwin Patrick Young, 48; Matthew N. Sterner, 47; Peter D. Williams, 55; and Joseph Degregorio, 71.

According to the indictment, unsealed Tuesday, the co-conspirators used A to Z Pharmacy Inc. in New Port Richey and several Miami-area pharmacies to submit false claims for prescription compounded medications.

The claims were based on prescriptions generated from illegal kickbacks and bribes, prescriptions with no legitimate provider-patient relationships, and misuse of patient information, the indictment says.

In addition, the claims indicated that the medications contained certain pharmaceutical ingredients when they did not, according to the indictment.

The pharmacies submitted about $633 million in claims and received some $157 million in reimbursement, according to the indictment. The co-conspirators are accused of using shell companies to transfer and disburse the money and to conceal their activities.

In addition to A to Z Pharmacy, the co-conspirators used Medplus/New Life Pharmacy, Metropolitan Pharmacy, Havana Pharmacy, Jaimy Pharmacy and Prestige Pharmacy to submit the reimbursement claims, according to the indictment.