Attorney General Josh Stein announced that James Craig Bell, the owner of Townsend’s Pharmacy in Robeson County, was sentenced to two years in prison for conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. His fraudulent practices cost Medicare and the North Carolina Medicaid program more than $4 million over a decade. From 2006 to 2017, Bell’s company billed Medicare, Medicaid, and private health plans for prescription drugs that were never dispensed. Bell trained other employees on how to bill healthcare plans for undispersed medications and how to fraudulently reauthorize existing prescriptions from a licensed medical professional. Mr. Bell’s codefendant and former employee was sentenced last month to two years in prison as well, followed by three years of supervised release, after pleading guilty in connection to this matter.
