A Kickback Never Wears the Word “Kickback”

The post: Kimberly shared Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes's lawsuit against two major pharmacy benefit managers over their alleged role in the state's opioid crisis, and asked why cases like this end in fines instead of criminal charges.

Read Kimberly Carleson's original post on LinkedIn →

My comment:

I ran a version of this play on the provider side for over a decade.

Nothing in my world ever showed up wearing the word "kickback." It was a collection fee, a marketing agreement, an administrative reimbursement, a medical directorship for a doctor who directed nothing. Every payment arrived in a costume, and I learned that vocabulary at lunches from the Goliaths and titans of the system where every contractual word had been "vetted."

When it came apart, the government called it what it was. I pleaded guilty to $150 million, served eight and a half years, and still have $51 million in restitution.

I earned that. I've never once argued otherwise.

To your question about why no criminal charges — I don't think it's that nobody cares. A corporation can't be imprisoned. So the consequence lands on a balance sheet, and a balance sheet absorbs it and keeps going. A fine is a cost of doing business. What happened to me was an actual consequence.

And I'll say the uncomfortable part: I wanted to be big enough that a fine was the worst thing that could happen to me. I never got there.

Most men in my position play victim. I'm not going to play that role.

Originally posted as a comment on LinkedIn.