A federal grand jury has indicted a Central Ohio doctor on charges related to a multi-million dollar health care fraud scheme that included prescription creams, a Suboxone clinic and Medicaid customers.
Bernard Oppong, 60, of Blacklick was charged in a seven-count indictment. Those charges include prescribing and distributing a prescription cream and mailing it to Medicaid customers.
Oppong was also charged with prescribing and distributing Suboxone, a drug addiction treatment, to patients not needing the medicine.
Oppong worked as a doctor at Health and Wellness Medical Center in Dublin.
Federal officials say through an affiliated pharmacy, Health and Wellness Pharmacy on Blazer Parkway in Dublin, Oppong and others marketed the cream to Sav-a-Lot stores and low-income neighborhoods. They also say he mailed the medical cream to Medicaid customers, without ever examining them.
Authorities say the Health And Wellness Center on some days would bill for as many as 477 prescriptions.
Several other defendants also faces charges in the case, including 43-year-old Darrell Bryant and 34-year-old Gifty Kusi, both of Hilliard. They owned and operated both Health and Wellness Pharmacy and Health and Wellness Medical Center. Their trial is set for December 3.
Authorities say a final defendant, 54-year old Jornel Rivera of Dublin, pleaded guilty in May 2018 to making false statements related to health care matters. Rivera served as the Medical Director of Health and Wellness Medical Center. No date has been set for his sentencing hearing.
