Two women pleaded guilty yesterday for their respective roles in helping run a “pill mill,” which led to the fraudulent dispensing of thousands of prescription opioid pills. According to court documents and statements made in court, Kimberly Lancaster, 41, of Haymarket, was the office manager, and Susan Alcantara, 29, of Leesburg, was a medical assistant at an addiction/pain treatment clinic and an OB/GYN practice (“The Medical Practices”), which both operated in the same location in Northern Virginia. From at least June 2018 through June 2019, both Lancaster and Alcantara assisted a physician in operating a prescription “pill mill” at which so-called “patients,” many of whom were actually cash-paying customers, could obtain medically unnecessary prescriptions. Lancaster, despite having no medical qualifications or training, often provided medical advice to the physician regarding the dispensing of prescription medications to individuals who were not patients of the physician. Lancaster also falsified medical records on behalf of the physician to make it appear as though patients and individuals who were never patients of The Medical Practices received medical examinations when in fact they had not. The physician often paid Lancaster for her services through the issuance of opioid prescriptions.
Alcantara filled fraudulent prescriptions for opioid medications in her name and the names of at least four unwitting individuals at various pharmacies in Northern Virginia. Despite being aware of Alcantara’s opioid addiction, the physician provided many of the fraudulent prescriptions to Alcantara that were written in the names of unwitting individuals that the physician had never medically examined. Lancaster and Alcantara’s participation in the prescription fraud scheme led to the fraudulent filling and dispensing of thousands of prescription opioid pills at pharmacies in Northern Virginia. Lancaster and Alcantara’s actions also caused the Medicaid healthcare benefit program to pay for fraudulently dispensed prescription opioids.
