|
TRENTON
- Attorney General Paula T. Dow and Criminal
Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor announced
that two Essex County pharmacy technicians
were sentenced today for participating in
a scheme in which pharmacy owners and employees
allegedly bought completed prescription
forms for HIV/AIDS drugs from indigent patients
so Medicaid could be billed for drugs that
were never actually dispensed. A third pharmacy
technician pleaded guilty today to illegal
possession of prescription drugs.
According
to Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Riza
Dagli, Jannah Rasheedah Amatul Muid, 26,
of East Orange, and Alicia Stephens, 29,
of Newark, were each sentenced to three
years of probation by Superior Court Judge
Michael A. Petrolle in Essex County. The
judge ordered that they be excluded from
working for any Medicaid provider for five
years. In addition, Muid was ordered to
perform 150 hours of community service,
and Stephens, 100 hours.
Muid
and Stephens each pleaded guilty on Jan.
20 to third-degree Medicaid fraud, a charge
contained in an Oct. 26, 2009 state grand
jury indictment. In pleading guilty, the
defendants, both technicians at Pharmacy
of America in East Orange, admitted that
between May 11, 2006 and October 15, 2008,
they paid Medicaid beneficiaries for prescriptions
and subsequently billed Medicaid for prescription
drugs that were never dispensed to the Medicaid
beneficiaries.
Deputy
Attorney General Sherry Wilson prosecuted
the defendants and represented the state
at the sentencing hearing. The defendants
were charged as a result of Operation PharmScam,
an ongoing investigation targeting Medicaid
fraud that began in 2008 and has been conducted
by the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor’s
Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, the Jersey
City Police Department and the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration’s Office of
Criminal Investigations.
Also
today, a third technician at Pharmacy of
America, Shivonne Diacy Forde, 27, of Orange,
pleaded guilty to an accusation charging
her with third-degree unlawful possession
of prescription drugs with intent to distribute.
In
pleading guilty, Forde admitted that she
possessed prescription cough syrup with
codeine, without a valid prescription, which
she intended to provide to others for distribution
on the street. The state will recommend
that she be sentenced to three years of
probation. She will be excluded from working
for any Medicaid provider for five years.
Her sentencing is scheduled for June 3.
“Our
Medicaid Fraud Control Unit has made it
a priority to detect and prosecute dishonest
pharmacy operators who view the high cost
of many prescription medicines as a golden
opportunity to fraudulently bill the Medicaid
program,” said Acting Insurance Fraud
Prosecutor Dagli. “We have indicted
four pharmacists and three pharmacies in
this ongoing investigation.”
Seven
other defendants were indicted along with
Muid, Stephens and Forde as a result of
the investigation into Pharmacy of America
and other pharmacies that were buying prescriptions
from patients and billing the Medicaid Program
for medicines that were never dispensed.
A full list of defendants charged is in
the Oct. 26, 2009 press release at www.njpublicsafety.com.
On
Feb. 23, Nwala Gabriel, 49, of Piscataway,
pleaded guilty to a charge of third-degree
Medicaid fraud before Judge Petrolle. In
pleading guilty, Gabriel, the owner of Harrison
Pharmacy on Martin Luther King Boulevard
in Newark, admitted that he fraudulently
billed Medicaid for prescription drugs that
were never dispensed to the Medicaid beneficiaries.
The
state will recommend that Gabriel be sentenced
to three years of probation. The state also
reserves the right to recommend that he
be sentenced to up to 364 days in the county
jail as a condition of probation. Gabriel
must pay restitution and a penalty totaling
$178,272 and will be excluded from the Medicaid
program for three years. He must surrender
his pharmacy license for a minimum of three
years or until he successfully completes
all terms of his criminal sentence.
The
investigation has been conducted for the
Medicaid Fraud Control Unit by Detective
Danielle Han, Detective Joseph Jaruszewski,
Detective Jacqueline Latty, Detective Kevin
Gannon, Sgt. Fred Weidman and Sgt. James
Wrightson. Deputy Attorneys General Sherry
Wilson and Debra Conrad are leading the
prosecutions, with assistance from Deputy
Attorney General Erik Daab, Deputy Chief
of the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, and
Deputy Attorneys General William Hoyman,
Cynthia Vazquez, Linda Rinaldi and Carol
Stanton Meier.
The
Medicaid Program, which is funded by the
state and federal governments, provides
health care services and prescription drugs
to persons who may not otherwise be able
to afford such services and medicines. The
State of New Jersey administers the Medicaid
Program through the Division of Medical
Assistance and Health Services and through
the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor’s
Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, which investigates
both criminal and civil Medicaid fraud and
abuse in that program.
Acting
Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Dagli urged members
of the public who have information about
suspected Medicaid fraud or insurance fraud
to report it anonymously by calling the
toll-free hotline 1-877-55-FRAUD
or visiting the Web site
www.NJInsurancefraud.org. State regulations
permit a reward to be paid to an eligible
person who provides information that leads
to an arrest, prosecution and conviction
for insurance fraud.
### |
