Brett Favre pitchman for firm reportedly under probe

New NFL Hall of Famer Brett Favre is a pitchman for a company now being investigated by the Justice Department, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

The department is reportedly examining what authorities believe to be roughly $500 million in health care fraud perpetrated by companies that sell specialty creams designed to treat pain and other conditions.

Favre has promoted a pain cream called Rx Pro made by World Health Industries Inc. of Jackson, one of the companies the Journal says is under investigation.

Compounding creams have surged in popularity, and investigators are examining allegations that some of these products have no medicinal value and that some pharmacies overbilled or automatically refilled prescriptions for the product that can cost more than $10,000, the Journal reported.

Tricare, the health-insurance program for U.S. military personnel, veterans, and their families, is believed to have been bilked for the most money in the suspected fraud, though Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers were also billed, according to the Journal.

No one has been charged in the case, but the FBI has been making raids and arrests in connections with compounding pharmacies in recent years.

Favre’s agent, Bus Cook, did not respond to the Journal’s request for comment.

In 2013, Cook, Favre and Byron Barrett of Hattiesburg formed a limited liability company called 3B Medical Group.

The Journal suggested investigators are now examining whether the company may have acted as a marketing and promotional arm for the cream business.

In 2013, Favre said in an interview on SiriusXM in 2013 that Rx Pro was “a safe way to treat some of your ailments,” adding, “It even works with cramps, stomach pain.”

Contact Jerry Mitchell at jmitchell@jackson.gannett.com or (601) 961-7064. Follow @jmitchellnews on Twitter.