By Jeff Goldman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Two New Jersey doctors are among four men charged with being a part of a $4.5 health care fraud ring that obtained medically unnecessary compound medications for public workers with generous insurance plans, authorities said Thursday.

A physician’s assistant has already pleaded guilty for his role in the fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Jersey said in a statement.

Daniel Oswari, 48, of Bordentown and Michael Goldis of Mount Laurel, are the two physicians charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and health care fraud along with Steven Monaco, 37, of the Sewell section of Mantua.

Monaco, Oswari, and Goldis also were each charged with individual acts of health care fraud and wire fraud, and Aaron Jones, 25, of Willingboro was charged with 10 false statement counts. Monaco and Oswari were charged with a conspiracy involving kickbacks for referrals for laboratory work.

Jones worked as a medical assistant in Goldis’ office.

All are scheduled to make appearances in federal court in Camden on Thursday afternoon.

The quartet recruited people, including state and municipal workers with generous health care plans that enabled them to obtain prescriptions for the expensive medications between January 2014 and April 2016, charging documents state. They then obtained the medicine from a pharmacy in Louisiana as well as one in Pennsylvania, authorities said. Among the medicines were pain, scar, antifungal and libido creams as well as vitamin combinations.

The doctors never examined the recruited “patients," instead simply signing the prescriptions, prosectors said. The doctors later received kickbacks for their participation, authorities said.

After receiving the prescriptions by fax, the unnamed compounding pharmacies billed the state’s still unnamed pharmacy benefits administrator for a total of $4.5 million, according to court papers. The pharmacies gave a portion of the money to Richard Zappala, a pharmaceutical sales representative. Zappala then paid paid other members of the conspiracy.

Zappala has already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 13.

The physician’s assistant Jason Chacker, 36, of Feasterville, Pennsylvania pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

The five are just the latest to be charged or plea guilty in a wide-ranging scam that has ensnared firefighters, a police officer and more than 20 others.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman.

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