Central Kentucky pharmacist pleads guilty in case involving $100,000 in false bills
A Central Kentucky pharmacist has admitted making false claims for more than $100,000 in payments from Medicaid.
Justin T. Bell pleaded guilty Oct. 10 in federal court to one charge of making a false statement in connection with a payment from a federally funded health program.
Bell, then the owner of Georgetown Pharmacy, solicited “unwitting” Medicaid participants in March and April 2020 to receive an expensive product called a Siltrex pad, designed to control or prevent scars from burns, surgery or injuries, according to his plea agreement.
The Kentucky Medicaid program paid pharmacies $14,827.66 for a box of 12 Siltrex pads at the time, according to the court record.
At Bell’s direction, the pharmacy submitted claims for eight boxes of the pads, resulting in payments from Medicaid totaling $118,621.
The claims were false and not eligible for reimbursement because they were not for medically necessary purposes, according to the plea agreement.
The people who got the pads didn’t even use them in some cases, the document said.
U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove scheduled Bell to be sentenced in February.
The charge is punishable by up to 10 years in prison but Bell’s sentence will likely be less under advisory federal guidelines.
Bell agreed to pay restitution of at least $118,621 to Medicaid.
