An Arizona doctor, Walter Simmons is among 12 doctors, pharmacy owners and marketing pros accused of a fraud and kickback scheme that prosecutors allege involved a sham medical study used to bilk up to $102 million from the publicly-funded federal health program for military family members. This is sickening to those doctors who play by the rules.
Simmons worked at two Phoenix hospital chains and he was indicted in October in U.S. District Court in Dallas on one count of conspiracy to commit health-care fraud. The federal charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.
Federal prosecutors said the fraud involved prescribing “compounded” drugs such as pain, scar and migraine creams to military families covered by Tricare, the federal health insurance program for active-duty and retired military and family members. “Ripping off the vulnerable and sick should always have the severest of penalties”… says, lawyer William A. Miller of Phoenix, Arizona.
There have been at least two other federal probes alleging fraud with pharmacies that paid kickbacks to crooked doctors. Any venture, that offers a kickback, is heading for a disaster. Fraud is fraud. At the law firm of William A. Miller, of Scottsdale, we have seen fraud cases of ‘under the table’ payments for: bringing investors to the table, putting a real estate deal together (no commission unless you have a license) and mortgage brokering. All wrong, all regulated by statutes and Arizona Department Rules and Regulations. We are currently in appeal that involved a bank officer who would funnel REO’s to his dad’s development company. Same old story. Fraud.
If you have questions about finder’s fees, commissions, kickbacks, conflicts of interest and/or the legality of such, give us a call at 602.319.6899. Our office is conveniently located in Scottsdale, Arizona off of the 101.

You can get money from the Arizona Register of Contractors (ROC) in Arizona through their recovery fund. It’s a mini insurance policy for flakey contractors. In Ramsey v. Arizona Registrar of Contractors a homeowner sought recovery for subpar contracting. The ROC intervened and moved to dismiss the case against the Recovery Fund. It said, the homeowner had suffered no “actual damages” because the amount owed to complete the home was less than the amount owed to the contractor. The trial court ordered the ROC to pay the homeowner from the Fund. The appeals court remanded, agreeing with the ROC’s interpretation of “actual damages” as: (1) the reasonable cost of completing the contract and repairing the contractor’s defective performance; minus (2) the remaining unpaid contract price.

The appeals court reasoned that ROC’s interpretation restored claimants against the Fund to the same position they would have been in had the contract been performed by excluding contractor expenses that had never been paid.

Regarding the logic of the trial court, the appeals court said the statute governing payment from the fund requires only “testimony, documentary evidence, or other proof . . . as to those portions of the application to which the ROC has objected,” rather than a blanket statement of facts pursuant to Arizona Rule of Civil Procedure 56(c)(3).

Further, the appeals court held that the trial court was not required to hold a hearing prior to directing payment from the Fund, where the issue was legal and had been briefed by the lawyers.

At the Law Firm of William A. Miller, we have handled numerous contractor complaints over the years. The ROC waters are very rough and you should contact a lawyer before ‘jumping in’. Call Bill at 602-319-6899 to discuss.

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