Podiatrist Indicted In Foot Bath Scheme
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Dr. Craig Williams
WATER VALLEY – A Water Valley podiatrist who practices in Oxford has been charged in an 11-count indictment for allegedly running a five-year scheme to defraud health care benefit programs including Medicare by submitting over $11 million in false claims for medically unnecessary medications and ordering medically unnecessary testing in exchange for kickbacks and bribes.
Dr. Carey “Craig” Williams was indicted by a federal grand jury on October 27. Williams made his initial appearance in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge David A. Sanders on Nov. 2 and entered a not guilty plea. He was released on a $10,000 bond.
According to court documents Williams, 63, owned and operated North Mississippi Foot Specialists P.C. as well as an in-house pharmacy. The indictment alleges that Williams regularly prescribed antibiotic and antifungal creams to be mixed into a tub of warm water for patients to soak their feet. These drug cocktails often included capsules and creams that were not medically indicated to be dissolved in water and were often chosen based on their anticipated reimbursement amount rather than on medical necessity.
The indictment also alleges that Williams ordered medically unnecessary diagnostic testing to be performed on his patients’ toenail clippings, including testing for the bacteria that causes “cat scratch disease,” which is unlikely to be found in a toenail. In addition, the indictment alleges that Williams solicited and received cash kickbacks from a marketer in exchange for referring prescriptions for foot bath medications and referring biological specimens and testing orders to pharmacies and laboratories. Between approximately July, 2016, and July, 2021, Williams allegedly caused pharmacies to submit over $4.9 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for dispensing expensive foot bath medications that were not medically necessary. Between approximately January, 2018, and April, 2021, Williams allegedly cause a diagnostic laboratory to submit more than $6.4 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for medically unnecessary molecular diagnostic testing.
Williams is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud; seven counts of health care fraud; one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to offer, pay, solicit and receive kickbacks; and two counts of soliciting and receiving kickbacks. If convicted, Williams faces a maximum penalty of 20 years of imprisonment for conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud; 10 years of imprisonment per health care fraud count; five years of imprisonment for the kickback conspiracy count; and five years of imprisonment per count of soliciting kickbacks. A federal district judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
If convicted, Williams will also be ordered to forfeit to the United States any property, real or personal, that was derived directly or indirectly from gross proceeds traceable to the commission of the offenses.
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Defendant
• Dr. Craig Williams, a Water Valley resident and podiatrist practicing in Oxford
Co-conspirators
• Logan Hunter Power, a medical sales rep from Lafayette County
• Unnamed podiatrist #1 – works in Lafayette County
• Unnamed podiatrist #2 – works in DeSoto County
Relevant Entities
• North Mississippi Foot Specialists P.C. – Clinic owned and operated by Dr. Craig Williams in Oxford
• Community pharmacy that operated in North Mississippi Foot Specialist and later renamed Oxford Premier Pharmacy, LLC, also owned by Williams
• An unnamed Louisiana pharmacy
• An unnamed lab in Virginia
Breaking It Down: A Look At The Alleged
Fraudulent Claims and Kickback Scheme
OXFORD – The 11-count indictment outlining the charges against Dr. Craig Williams spans 30 pages and provides intricate details of the fraudulent billing schemes and kickbacks. Williams is accused of prescribing expensive drug cocktails for foot baths that weren’t designed for that type of treatment and also ordering medically unnecessary molecular diagnostic tests on his patients’ toenail clippings.
Williams opened North Mississippi Foot Specialists (NMFS) in 2002. Around July, 2016, after learning of the high reimbursements paid to pharmacies by health care benefit programs for the dispensation of foot bath medications, Williams opened a pharmacy within NMFS that was later organized as Oxford Premier Pharmacy. The pharmacy specialized in the dispensation of the high-cost foot bath medications. To maximize reimbursements from Medicare and private plans, NMFS and Oxford Premier Pharmacy dispensed the medications in large quantities to be dissolved in foot baths.
From July, 2016, through December, 2020, Medicare reimbursed Oxford Premier Pharmacy approximately $4 million for claims for the foot bath medications.
Additionally Medicare reimbursed a Louisiana pharmacy approximately $816,756.15 for claims submitted for dispensing the foot bath medications predicated upon prescriptions authorized by Williams.
Williams also submitted requests for diagnostics to the lab in Virginia – from January, 2018, to April, 2021 – that resulted in $6,489,631 in false and fraudulent claims submitted to Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans. Of that amount, the Virginia lab received approximately $2,196,419 in reimbursements from Medicare for conducting diagnostic testing ordered by Williams.
The Kickback Scheme
The kickback scheme involved the $816,756.15 the Louisiana pharmacy received and the $2,196,419 the Virginia lab received in reimbursements from Medicare. Williams is accused of receiving a cut totaling $87,950 from those amounts.
Williams’ cut allegedly came from Logan Power, a medical sales rep who also made money by soliciting practitioners to send prescriptions, doctors’ orders and biological specimens to the pharmacy in Louisiana and lab in Virginia.
According to the court documents, Power entered into a purported employment agreement with the Louisiana pharmacy where he would refer prescriptions for foot bath medications to be filled by the pharmacy in exchange for 30 percent of the reimbursements received by the pharmacy from Medicare for the prescriptions. In a similar deal with the lab in Virginia, Power would receive 25 percent of the reimbursements received by the lab from billing health care programs including Medicare.
According to the court documents, Power approached Williams to partner with him in to send biological specimens to the lab and doctor’s orders to the pharmacy in exchange for a share of the reimbursements that Power received from his referrals.
Following the Money on the Kickback Scheme
Of the $2,196,419 the Virginia lab received for conducting diagnostic testing ordered by Williams, the lab allegedly paid approximately $140,557.76 in kickbacks to Power through his company, Power Medical, LLC.
Of the $816,756.15 in reimbursements the Louisiana pharmacy received, Power allegedly received $121,362.56 in kickbacks.
In turn, from around January, 2018, through September, 2020, Power allegedly paid approximately $87,950 in cash kickbacks to Williams for his share of the reimbursements in accordance with the scheme.
The court file also included conversations between Williams and the unnamed Desoto County podiatrist who was a co-conspirator regarding the arrangement with Power. “(Power) gives you forty percent and he keeps sixty.” Williams stated, adding “I don’t ever put that money in the bank; I just spend the money. That’s what I take my family out to eat with, that’s what I, you know, just do various things, but I don’t ever put it in the bank.
Later in the conversation with the unnamed podiatrist Williams stated “Let’s face it, it’s illegal, and if we got caught, we’d get our hands slapped pretty good probably. I mean I don’t think we’d go to jail, but we’d get our hands slapped pretty good.”
Williams then added in the conversation, “(Power) is always like Doc, don’t tell anybody about this, and I’m like, I have as much or more to lose as you do, I’m not going to tell anybody about this.”
Logan also faces a single charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Court documents do not indicate if additional charges will be filed against the two unnamed podiatrists listed as co-conspirators.
