Yet Another Compound Cream Conviction
Orthopedic surgeon Michael Taba, M.D. of McKinney, along with two pharmacy owners, was convicted by a federal jury of conspiring to defraud the federal Department of Labor of more than $145 million dollars through the submission of fraudulent claims for prescription compound creams.
Federal prosecutors presented evidence at trial that pharmacy owners Dehshid “David” Nourian and Christopher Rydberg paid Dr. Taba to write prescriptions for expensive compound creams to be filled at their pharmacies and that in less than three years, they billed the Department of Labor Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs more than $145 million for those creams.
For years, we have reported on compound cream scams in state and federal workers’ compensation systems. Most recently, we reported that on October 11, 2022, Ms. Khyati Undavia, owner of Memorial Compounding Pharmacy, was sentenced to 27 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen. This is hopefully the last time we have to report on a compound cream conviction.
Fortunately, the compound cream scam seems to have largely gone away in the Texas workers’ compensation system since DWC changed the rule to require preauthorization for all compound drugs.
You can read the Justice Department’s press release
here.
