PHARMACIST PLEADS GUILTY TO MEDICAID FRAUD

Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced today that a Montgomery County pharmacist, 62 year-old Arthur M. Weinstein and the pharmacy he owned, The Medical Pharmacy of Chevy Chase, pleaded guilty to one count each of Medicaid Fraud for defrauding the Medicaid Program of $320,000.00.

The Honorable Paul Smith sentenced Weinstein to three years in jail, with all but 12 months suspended and to be served in home detention; the judge also ordered Weinstein to serve three years probation. Weinstein is also required to pay $320,000 restitution and an $80,000.00 fine, as well as investigative costs of $20,000.00 to the Office of Attorney General. The Pharmacy owned by Weinstein, The Medical Pharmacy of Chevy Chase located on the 5500 block of Wisconsin Avenue in Chevy Chase, was also found guilty of Medicaid Fraud. Judge Smith ordered that the Pharmacy pay a fine of $50,000.00.

Over a three year period Mr. Weinstein would fraudulently bill the Medicaid program for providing medications to developmentally disabled residents of four institutions that used his pharmacy’s services; VOCA, Secure Care Services, Ltd., Rock Creek Foundation and the ARC of Montgomery County. From January 1999 through March 2002 Weinstein billed Medicaid for several thousand prescriptions which had never been prescribed by a doctor and never delivered to a patient. Weinstein also falsely increased the quantity of pills for a legitimate prescription, and then billed Medicaid for the increased quantity.

The investigation of Weinstein and the Medical Pharmacy of Chevy Chase by Attorney General Curran’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit began when the mother of a resident at one of the four institutions contacted the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit after discovering that Medicaid had been billed for medication that had never been prescribed for her son and which had never been received by her son. “This is a perfect example of how the public can help us. Never hesitate to contact my office if you are aware of someone who is defrauding the state,” said Curran.

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