An Orange County man was sentenced to 30 years behind bars on Wednesday, Sept. 9 for his role in a healthcare fraud in which, prosecutors say, $269 million in bogus claims were submitted to Medi-Cal for expensive prescription drugs that were not medically necessary and, in many instances, not provided at all.
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Paul Randall, 67, of Orange had pleaded guilty in April in downtown Los Angeles to a single federal count of healthcare fraud.
He was ordered by U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi to pay restitution of $178.74 million, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
An affidavit filed in Los Angeles federal court states that Randall, Kyrollos Mekail, 37, of Moreno Valley, and Patricia Anderson, 58, of West Hills, took advantage of Medi-Cal’s suspension of its requirement that caregivers obtain prior authorization before providing certain services or medications as a condition of reimbursement.
The suspension was part of the transition of Medi-Cal’s prescription drug program to a new payment system.
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Prosecutors said that through a business called Monte Vista Pharmacy, Randall and his associates billed Medi-Cal tens of millions of dollars per month.
Some prescription medications purportedly were to treat pain.
From May 2022 to April 2023, Monte Vista billed Medi-Cal more than $269 million and was paid more than $178 million for 19 expensive drugs, prosecutors said.
Randall and others then laundered their illicit proceeds by transferring them to a third party.
Anderson was charged last year with healthcare fraud. Mekail pleaded guilty to criminal charges in August 2024 and is awaiting sentencing.
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