Nurse Practitioner Pleads Guilty in $1.4 Million Compounding Scheme

Wednesday, June 20, 2018 | 0

A nurse practitioner in Mississippi has pleaded guilty to prescribing unnecessary compounded drugs and defrauding insurance programs of almost $1.4 million, authorities announced.

Susan Perry, 58, who resides in Grand Bay, Alabama, pleaded guilty last week, just a week before her trial was to begin, to conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

The woman prescribed the compounds to people who did not need them, sometimes without examining the patients, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Perry admitted she knew that Advantage Pharmacy, based in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, would submit claims for reimbursement from government and other benefits programs, including TRICARE, and she expected that the programs would pay the claims, the release said. In 2014 and 2015, the insurance programs paid the pharmacy about $1.38 million on the claims.

Several federal and state law enforcement agencies investigated the case. Perry is set for sentencing Sept. 20.