Queens pharmacist and managers cuffed for fraud
Suspects involved in multimillion dollar Medicaid fraud scheme in Harlem and BK
BY EMILY DAVENPORT
A city pharmacist from
Queens and three of her
pharmacy managers were
arrest for their alleged roles
in a multimillion-dollar
Medicaid scheme that involved
HIV drugs and kickbacks, the
Attorney General announced
on Friday, July 19.
Irina Pichkhadze, 34, owner
of First Choice Pharmacy,
was charged alongside
Queens residents Raymond
Dieffenbacher, 46,
and Tarlan Pinkhasov, 40,
and Yana Dubrinskaya, 31,
of Brooklyn, who work as
pharmacy managers for
Pichkhadze. First Choice
Pharmacy, Express Audit
Prevention Corp. (Express
Audit) and OTC Distributors
Inc. were also charged with
crimes related to defrauding
Medicaid out of over $10
million through the scheme
allegedly based in First Choice
Pharmacy in Harlem.
All four defendants were
charged with grand larceny,
health care fraud and scheme
to defraud. Pichkhadze,
Dieffenbacher and
Dubrinskaya, along with
Express Audit and OTC, were
also charged with various
counts of money laundering
for allegedly knowingly
conducting financial
transactions designed to
conceal the source of the
larceny and health care
fraud. Pichkhadze was
also charged with criminal
possession of a forged
instrument.
The defendants are due
back in court on Aug. 1.
“It is disturbing and deeply
damaging to our society when
health care professionals
exploit our most vulnerable
patients to steal millions of
dollars reserved to provide
New Yorkers with essential
health care,” said Attorney
General Letitia James. “We
put our trust in medical
providers to serve us with
honesty and care, and these
Photo via Getty Images
individuals took advantage of
both that trust and our state.
My office will continue to
hold accountable those who
forsake their professional
responsibility to their patients
and choose instead to use it to
line their pockets with public
funds.”
According to charges, the
defendants allegedly paid or
directed employees to pay
cash kickbacks to Medicaid
recipients in return for each
patient’s agreement to fill
their HIV prescriptions, which
were filled at Pichkhadze’s
First Choice Pharmacy,
located at 245 East 124th St.
in Manhattan. The pharmacy
then allegedly billed and
received hundreds of
thousands of dollars from
Medicaid for refills that First
Choice Pharmacy either
did not dispense to patients,
a scheme known as “autorefilling.”
According to state law, it is
illegal for medical providers,
including pharmacies, to pay
or offer to pay cash kickbacks
to anyone in return for the
referral of medical services
ultimately paid for by
Medicaid.
Charges say that between
Jan. 1, 2013, and Dec. 31,
2016, Pichkhadze’s First
Choice Pharmacy allegedly
didn’t purchase sufficient
quantities of medication
from licensed New York state
drug wholesalers to justify
the quantities of medication
it claimed, through its
billing records, to have
dispensed to patients. Due
to the false records allegedly
filed by the Medicaid- and
Medicaid-funded managed
care organizations (MCOs)
paid First Choice Pharmacy
and the defendants over $10.2
million dollars that they
allegedly were not entitled
to.
Read more at QNS.com.
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