George Hammer, who previously served as the chief financial officer of the physician management arm of Pacific Hospital has been sentenced to 15-months in prison.
George Hammer, the former chief financial officer for the physician management arm of Pacific Hospital—a California-based healthcare provider with 184 acute care beds—has been sentenced to 15-months in prison for his role in an illegal kickback scheme, according to the Department of Justice.
Hammer was also ordered by United States District Judge Josephine Staton to pay an $8,000 fine and forfeit $500,000 in proceeds he allegedly gained from the fraud. Hammer was originally charged back in 2018, at the time he pled guilty to one count of filing a false tax return.
Hammer was the financial officer for various companies controlled by Michael Drobot, who owned Pacific Hospital in Long Beach. The Department of Justice says Drobot conspired with doctors, chiropractors, and marketers to pay kickbacks in return for the referral of thousands of patients to Pacific Hospital for spinal surgeries and other medical services, which were primarily paid for through the California workers’ compensation system.
During the final five years of the fraud, the Department of Justice says it resulted in $500 million in bills for kickback tainted surgeries. To date, 22 defendants have been convicted for participating in the kickback scheme.
"Through his role at the Drobot-controlled entities, [Hammer] ensured that doctors were paid more than $40 million…in kickbacks," prosecutors said, according to the Department of Justice. "The scheme was too complex for Drobot to do alone. It could not have been accomplished without complicit executives like [Hammer] who furthered the scheme."
In January 2018, Drobot was sentenced to five years in federal prison for his crimes in this matter and awaits a March 2023 sentencing hearing after pleading guilty to three criminal charges for violating a court forfeiture order in the Pacific Hospital case
Amanda Schiavo is the Finance Editor for HealthLeaders.