NEWARK, NJ - Harrison Pharmacy owner Nwala Gabriel pleaded guilty to a third-degree Medicaid fraud charge yesterday before Superior Court Judge Michael A. Petrolle in Essex County.
Gabriel, whose pharmacy is located on Martin Luther King Boulevard, admitted that he falsified Medicaid bills for prescription drugs that were never dispensed to the beneficiaries. The charge comes as a part of an investigation into pharmacy owners and employees who purchased completed prescription forms for HIV/AIDS drugs from indigent patients so the state and federally funded program would be billed.
The state will recommend that Gabriel be sentenced to three years of probation. He might also be sentenced to up to 364 days in the county jail as a condition of probation. Gabriel must pay restitution and a penalty totaling $178,272 ,and will be excluded from the Medicaid program for three years.
Gabriel must also surrender his license to practice pharmacy for a minimum of three years or until successfully completing all terms of his criminal sentence.
Petrolle announced that Gabriel’s sentencing is scheduled for April 5.
Gabriel was charged as a result of Operation PharmScam, an ongoing investigation targeting Medicaid fraud that began in 2008 and has been conducted by OIFP’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, the Jersey City Police Department and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations.
On Oct. 26, 2009, a total of 10 defendants, including Gabriel, were indicted as a part of the fraudulent Medicaid billing investigation.
On Jan. 19, two technicians at the Pharmacy of America based in East Orange were indicted. Jannah Rasheedah Amatul Muid and Alicia Stephens pleaded guilty to third-degree Medicaid fraud.
The state administers the Medicaid program through the Division of Medical Assistance and Health Services and through the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, which investigates both criminal and civil Medicaid fraud and abuse in that program.
Anyone with information about fraud or abuse involving the Medicaid program or Medicaid providers is urged to call the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit toll free at 1-877-55-FRAUD or report it online at www.NJInsuranceFraud.org. All information received will remain confidential.
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