Dr. Adam Katschke has been sentenced to between 12 to 48 months in prison for insurance and Medicaid fraud. The announcement was made last week by the State Attorney General?s office.
Dr. Adam Katschke, former owner and head pharmacist of the Meadow Valley Pharmacy in Caliente and former Lincoln County commissioner, has been sentenced to a term of between 12 to 48 months in prison for insurance and Medicaid fraud. In addition, he has been ordered to pay restitution of $1.5 million to all affected insurance companies.
State Attorney General Adam Laxalt made the announcement Jan. 13 following sentencing proceedings before 7th Judicial District Court Judge Gary Fairman in Pioche.
Katschke, 44, pled guilty last summer following an investigation by the Attorney General?s office ?for insurance and Medicaid fraud for his role in defrauding insurance companies by billing for large amounts of compound pharmaceutical prescriptions that were rarely provided as billed to the patients or prescribed by a physician.?
The official press release from the Attorney General said the fraudulent acts were committed between April 2013 and April 2015.
In Oct. 2016, the State Board of Pharmacy revoked Katschke?s license and ordered he close or sell the Meadow Valley Pharmacy and the satellite Pahranagat Valley Pharmacy by Jan. 11, 2017. Sale of the business to Tyler Heaton of Panaca and his brother John, of Mapleton, Utah, was completed near the end of the year.
The AG?s office stated, ?After information was initially provided by the Nevada Department of Public Safety, Investigative Division (NDI), the Insurance Fraud Unit (IFU) and the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) of the Office of the Nevada Attorney, Laxalt?s office worked collaboratively with the Lincoln County Sheriff?s Office to investigate this fraud. During the course of the investigation, the IFU and MFCU discovered Katschke and Meadow Valley Pharmacy were not dispensing compound pharmaceuticals as billed, and had created false documentation for the pharmaceuticals allegedly dispensed.?
Katschke had to resign his seat on the commission, but has been praised by other board members for the fine work he performed on behalf of the county. He was an instrumental player, along with former commissioner Paul Mathews, and other subcommittee members in obtaining the Crestline landfill purchase from Recology and the short term hauling contract with Western Elite.
Current board chair Paul Donohue said he is ?deeply saddened and surprised by the length of the sentence.?
Donohue added, ?I think Adam is one of the top three commissioners we have ever had. He was extremely willing to go and do whatever it took. If he had to be somewhere, then he was there. He would go to any meeting, anywhere, in state, out of state, anywhere. In addition to his intelligence, was his attitude to just help everybody that he possibly could. On the solid waste issue, all the things that we dealt with there, his service was something we simply can?t measure, just absolutely amazing.?
Former Commission chair Kevin Phillips had said earlier, ?We will miss him sorely.?