Hayley Taff, CEO of Hammond, La.-based pharmacy Central Rexall Drugs, pleaded guilty Aug. 12 to playing a key role in a scheme that garnered more than $50 million in false reimbursements.
Ms. Taff and her co-conspirators recruited public employees in New Jersey to get pricey specialty prescriptions they had not been prescribed, according to U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito of the District of New Jersey.
Recruiters told the patients which medications to get based on how much reimbursement the pharmacy would receive from insurance companies for the drugs, not because the patients needed them, Mr. Carpenito said. The drugs covered within these New Jersey workers' insurance plans included expensive pain, antifungal, scar and libido medications with reimbursements that often ran as high as thousands of dollars per month, WNBC reported.
Central Rexall Drugs was paid more than $50 million in reimbursements from pharmacy benefits managers from 2015 to 2016, according to Mr. Carpenito. He also said Ms. Taff, who will be sentenced Dec. 1, received more than $1.5 million from the scheme.
Ms. Taff pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and agreed to pay back more than $1.5 million, authorities said. She could face up to 10 years in prison.