Healthcare Fraud Lawyer Blog
Our discussions of Medicare and Medicaid fraud on this blog include a wide-range of schemes and schemers. In most cases, however, the people running the scam are on the provider-side of the health care equation; they are medical professionals, medical supply companies, health care facilities, or otherwise involved in the provision of care to patients. While rarer, beneficiary-committed health care fraud does occur, meaning cases in which a beneficiary is the primary fraudulent actor rather than a pawn in a provider’s scheme. Perhaps the subset of health care fraud that is most often committed by beneficiaries is prescription fraud. Of course, beneficiaries aren’t the only ones involved in prescription fraud, but our Medicaid and Medicare prescription drug fraud lawyer finds their role makes this form of fraud a unique threat.
Pennsylvania Woman Indicted for Prescription Fraud
While the specific case involves fraud against private insurers, charges filed in Pennsylvania provide an example of this type of fraud. Pittsburgh’s WTAE reports that Kari Richards of Latrobe, PA was indicted in a U.S. District Court last week on charges including health care fraud and obtaining prescription medication via fraud. According to police, Richards visited in excess of 100 hospitals spanning 11 states to obtain prescription medication for shoulder injuries that she actually inflicted on herself. Over 16 months, she allegedly sought hospital care more than 300 times. Authorities claim that, between January 2014 and April 2015, Richards ultimately obtained 190 prescriptions for opiate medications including oxycodone. The grand jury indictment suggests the frauds against Highmark Community Blue Shared Cost plan totaled more than $600,000. Richards was arrested and then released pending trial.
