Former Wallingford Doctor Who Sold Opioid Prescriptions for Cash Sentenced to Federal Prison
WALLINGFORD, Conn. - Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that ANATOLY BRAYLOVSKY, 52, of Wallingford, hsa been sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kari A. Dooley in Bridgeport to 90 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for controlled substances and health care fraud offenses related to the illegal distribution of prescription medication through his medical practice.
According to court documents and statements made in court, Braylovsky was an internal medicine physician who operated the Family Practice of Greater New Haven, LLC, located on North Main Street in Wallingford. Braylovsky’s practice accepted patients who were insured by Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial insurance plans. Beginning in approximately 2014, the DEA and the Wallingford Police Department received complaints about Braylovsky’s prescribing practices. In early 2016, investigators from both the DEA Diversion Control Division and the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection’s Drug Control Division notified Braylovsky that they were concerned about his prescribing practices and informed him that some of his patients had a criminal history. Through subsequent Connecticut Prescription Monitoring Program inquiries, investigators found that Braylovsky continued to prescribe a high quantity of opioid-based pills, as well as Alprazolam and Adderall, to a number of patients. Investigators also received information that some of Braylovsky’s patients, including Jennifer Bousquet, received medically unnecessary prescriptions for these drugs and were then selling the pills for profit; that Braylovsky was selling prescriptions for large amounts of cash; and that some patients who had their prescriptions filled provided pills to Braylovsky.
In approximately October 2019, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) joined the investigation when it was discovered that patients of Braylovsky were using their Medicaid or Medicare insurance to pay for medically unnecessary prescriptions. For at least three years, Bousquet received from Braylovsky monthly prescriptions for 170 oxycodone 30mg pills, 75 Adderall 20mg pills, and 30 alprazolam 2mg pills.
During the investigation, law enforcement utilized a confidential source, who was both a patient of Braylovsky and an associate of Bousquet, to pay Braylovsky cash in exchange for receiving a prescription for oxycodone. On four occasions between October 2019 and January 2020, the source visited Braylovsky’s office, gave him $1,600 in cash, and received a prescription for 150 oxycodone 30mg pills. Even though Braylovsky performed no physical examination and did not discuss the source’s health, Braylovsky billed Medicaid for each office visit. In addition, the source provided Braylovsky with $1,600 in cash for a prescription during an office visit on March 18, 2020, and delivered $1,600 to Braylovsky’s car after a telehealth appointment on April 30, 2020. The appointment was conducted via FaceTime due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After each prescription was filled, DEA agents took the oxycodone pills into evidence. Medicaid paid for each filled prescription.
Between approximately January 2016 and May 2020, Medicare and Medicaid paid more than $1.6 million for schedule II medications, including oxycodone, prescribed by Braylovsky. During that time, Medicare and Medicaid also paid Braylovsky’s practice more than $590,000 for routine office visits. The investigation revealed that Braylovsky billed Medicare and Medicaid a total of $199,388.84 for illegitimate office visits and for unnecessary prescriptions.
Braylovsky and Bousquet were arrested on June 4, 2020.
In August 2021, while released on bond and awaiting trial in this case, Braylovsky expressed a desire to hire a hitman to kill or intimidate the confidential source who purchased oxycodone prescriptions from him during the investigation. Braylovsky then met with an undercover law enforcement officer posing as a hitman. He was again arrested on August 27, 2021, and has been detained since his arrest.
On December 21, 2023, Braylovsky pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, and to distribute, oxycodone, and one count of health care fraud.
Judge Dooley ordered Braylovsky to pay $199,388,84 in restitution.
On July 6, 2021, Bousquet pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, and to distribute, oxycodone. She awaits sentencing.
In a related civil case, Braylovsky and Family Practice of Greater New Haven, LLC, previously entered into a civil settlement agreement with the federal and state governments and paid $398,777.68 to settle allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by billing for medical services not rendered and issuing medically unnecessary controlled substances prescriptions, including for oxycodone, to certain Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. The settlement covers the time period from January 2016 through June 2020. Braylovsky was the sole medical practitioner of Family Practice of Greater New Haven, and the practice is no longer operating.
This investigation was conducted by the DEA New Haven Task Force, HHS-OIG’s Office of Investigations, FBI, Connecticut State Police, Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection – Drug Control Division, Connecticut Department of Public Health, Wallingford Police Department and Easton Police Department. The criminal case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney John T. Pierpont, Jr., and the civil case was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Nelson and Sarah Gruber, and by Deputy Associate Attorney General Gregory O’Connell of the Connecticut Office of the Attorney General.
