Former Milwaukee-area pharmacies owner sentenced to 18 months, ordered to pay nearly $1 million in restitution for paying Medicare and Medicaid kickbacks

A former Milwaukee-area pharmacies owner was sentenced to 18 months in prison on March 21 for paying health care kickbacks in violation of federal law.

Alexander Shister, 54, of Mequon was ordered to pay nearly $1 million in restitution to Medicare and Medicaid as well as a $40,000 fine.

According to a statement Friday from the U.S. Department of Justice:

Shister owned four pharmacies in the Milwaukee area. Starting in 2016, he engaged in a scheme for nearly two years to pay his co-defendant, David Guerrero, kickbacks in exchange for referrals of Medicare and Medicaid patients to Shister's pharmacies for expensive compound pain creams. Shister paid Guerrero $100 for each patient referral.

Guerrero was not a licensed medical provider but worked at two Milwaukee-area clinics and would order the pain creams to Shister's pharmacies, often without the patients' knowledge or consent.

The scheme resulted in Medicare and Medicaid paying Shister's pharmacies about $1 million for the pain creams, including creams not even received by patients. Shister paid Guerrero over $100,000 in kickbacks during the scheme.

Guerrero was sentenced in November to 32 months in prison for his role in the scheme, as well as a second kickback scheme involving a medical laboratory company.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Former Milwaukee-area pharmacies owner sentenced to 18 months