John Oxendine, the former Georgia Insurance Commissioner, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud in connection with unnecessary lab testing. He was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $760,175.34, and a $25,000 fine. According to US Attorney Buchanan, the charges and other information presented in court: John Oxendine conspired with Dr. Jeffrey Gallups and others to submit fraudulent insurance claims for medically unnecessary Pharmacogenetic, Molecular Genetic, and Toxicology testing. Physicians associated with Dr. Gallups’ ENT practice were pressured to order these medically unnecessary tests from Next Health, a lab in Texas. As part of Oxendine’s healthcare fraud scheme, Next Health agreed to pay Oxendine and Dr. Gallups a kickback of 50 percent of the net profit for eligible specimens submitted by Dr. Gallups’ practice to the lab company.
