Wednesday, July 7, 2021

San Antonio Physician’s Assistant Admits to Defrauding Medicaid and Medicare Relating to Compounded Drugs

 Department of Justice

U.S. Attorney’s Office
Western District of Texas

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, July 7, 2021

San Antonio Physician’s Assistant Admits to Defrauding Medicaid and Medicare

SAN ANTONIO – Christopher Felix Montoya, a licensed Physician’s Assistant and owner of TPC Family Care and Medical Clinics in San Antonio and Laredo, admitted to defrauding Medicaid, Medicare and TRICARE by fraudulent billing and receiving health care kickbacks.

Appearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry Bemporad this afternoon, Montoya pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and to pay and receive health care kickbacks.  Montoya admitted that from September 2018 to June 2019, he enriched himself by performing nasal swabs on patients and then accepting kickbacks for submitting those swabs to a particular laboratory for testing.  Montoya’s Chief Operating Officer, 41-year-old Nancy Almaguer of San Antonio, is charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and to pay and receive health care kickbacks and three counts of soliciting and receiving illegal health care kickbacks.  Jury selection and trial for Almaguer is pending. 

In a separate case, Montoya pleaded guilty on June 15, 2021, to one count of conspiracy to receive health care kickbacks.  Montoya admitted that for five months beginning in February 2015, he received kickbacks to write prescriptions for compounded medication from a California-based pharmacy that had high TRICARE reimbursements.  Based on the evidence, TRICARE was billed $1,884,577.86 for prescriptions Montoya wrote to which TRICARE paid out $797,262.21.

Montoya faces up to 20 years in federal prison.  Sentencing is scheduled for August 23, 2021, before Senior U.S. District Judge David A. Ezra in San Antonio. 

U.S. Attorney Ashley C. Hoff and Special Agent in Charge Christopher Combs of the FBI’s San Antonio Division made today’s announcement.

Agents with the FBI, together with the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and Defense Criminal Investigative Service, investigated this case.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Justin Chung and William R. Harris are prosecuting this case.

An indictment is merely a charge and should not be considered as evidence of guilt.  Almaguer is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.

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Topic(s): 
Health Care Fraud
Component(s): 
Contact: 
USAO/WDTX Media Relations (210) 384-7257 usatxw-mediainquiry@usdoj.gov

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