A Corbin, Ky., woman and former pharmacist, Stephanie Collins, 57, has been sentenced to 20 months for her role in a scheme to defraud Medicare and Medicaid, by billing for medications that she never dispensed to her customers. According to her plea agreement, Collins operated as a registered pharmacist and operated Stephanie’s Down Home Pharmacy, a retail pharmacy located in Corbin. The pharmacy sought reimbursement from Medicare and Kentucky Medicaid for the drugs and other medical products it dispensed to its customers.
As part of the scheme to defraud these taxpayer-funded healthcare benefit programs, Collins used the pharmacy’s computer system to submit claims for payment for prescription drugs that patients never picked up or otherwise received. Collins also submitted fraudulent claims for diabetic test strips, billing Kentucky Medicaid for more expensive test strips when she was actually giving her customers lower-cost test strips. In total, her false and fraudulent claims caused Kentucky Medicaid and Medicare to reimburse Collins’ pharmacy $730,055.78. Under federal law, Collins must serve 85 percent of her prison sentence. Upon her release from prison, she will be under the supervision of the US Probation Office for two years. The Court also ordered Collins to pay $730,055.78 in restitution.
