TRENTON
- Attorney General Anne Milgram announced
that a former Somerset County woman has
been sentenced for submitting phony prescription
drug claims.
According
to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden
Brown, Katherine Lee, 30, formerly of Hillsborough,
was ordered on Friday, Sept. 5, by Superior
Court Judge Edward M. Coleman in Somerset
County to serve three years probation and
to pay $8,108 in restitution to Selective
Insurance Company. The sentence was pursuant
to Lee’s March 3 guilty plea to a
criminal accusation which charged her with
health care claims fraud.
At
the guilty plea hearing, Lee admitted that
between Nov. 1, 2000 and April 30, 2004,
she submitted 15 fraudulent prescription
drug claims to Selective Insurance Company
for prescription medications. Lee admitted
that following a serious automobile accident,
she submitted claims reflecting that she
had paid full price for the prescription
medication but had, in reality, only paid
a co-payment of between $5 and $25. Lee
admitted that she was responsible only for
the co-pay portion of the cost of the medications
because her prescriptions were provided
to her pursuant to a prescription drug insurance
plan.
State Investigator Janet Amberg, Civil Investigator
Dana Basile and Deputy Attorney General
Susan Kase were assigned to the investigation.
Kase represented the Office of Insurance
Fraud Prosecutor at the sentencing.
This
case was referred to OIFP by the Special
Investigative Unit of the Selective Insurance
Company which initially uncovered the fraud
and assisted OIFP in the investigation.
Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Brown thanks
Selective for their assistance in this matter.
The
Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor was
established by the Automobile Insurance
Cost Reduction Act of 1998. The office is
the centralized state agency that investigates
and prosecutes both civil and criminal insurance
fraud, as well as Medicaid fraud.
# # # |