Huntsville healthcare CEO indicted by federal grand jury in kickback scheme

The president and CEO of a Huntsville-based professional medical testing business was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly spending and acquiring thousands and thousands of pounds in kickbacks to medical doctors who referred clients to him for medically unneeded nerve injury exams, according to court docket filings.

John Hornbuckle, the president and CEO of QBR, Inc., which did company in Huntsville under the identify Diagnostic Referral Community, was indicted on charges of conspiracy to pay and obtain kickbacks, healthcare fraud conspiracy and cash laundering conspiracy, according to the indictment submitted Tuesday in federal court docket in Birmingham.

The indictment alleged Hornbuckle paid out and been given kickbacks from three physicians who referred clients to QBR, whose technicians done nerve harm assessments on the people.

Only just one of the physicians — Dr. Mark Murphy, who operates pain clinics in Alabama and Tennessee — was named in the indictment. He was not billed in the circumstance.

Hornbuckle’s business disguised the payments to the medical practitioners as hourly payments for their time, even however QBR paid them a flat rate for each and every individual referred to the business, according to the indictment.

Hornbuckle allegedly paid more than $1 million in kickbacks to the medical professionals, and federal insurance policies plans were being billed $10.4 million for the nerve problems exams.