Pharmacist Pleaded Guilty to Health Care Fraud and Other Charges, Faces Prison Sentence

July 15, 2010 12:54 pm

Pamela Arrey, a licensed pharmacist who owned and operated two pharmacies in Baltimore, MD, pleaded guilty to charges of health care fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to misbrand pharmaceuticals. According to a United States Department of Justice press release, from January 2003 to January 2008 Arrey claimed reimbursements from health care benefit programs for prescriptions for which physicians had authorized refills that were not requested by the patients. Arrey used patients’ personal identifying information to make these claims for drugs that were never dispensed, and obtained approximately $505,745 through this fraudulent scheme. Further, as discovered in a July 2008 surprise inspection of one of Arrey’s pharmacies by the Maryland Board of Pharmacy, she had acquired large drums of misbranded pharmaceuticals which were purchased from an unlicensed supplier. The Maryland Board of Pharmacy recovered from one pharmacy 11 drums containing over 200,000 misbranded pills, and a subsequent search of Arrey’s home and pharmacies by federal agents uncovered additional drugs with expiration dates removed and altered labels. Evidence of fraudulent claims and relabeled prescription drugs prompted the Food and Drug Administration, in 2008, to issue an alert to customers not to use drugs distributed by Arrey’s pharmacy. Arrey was sentenced by a US District Judge to 57 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.