Maryland pharmacy owner sentenced to 57 months in prison

Pamela Arrey pled guilty to health care fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to misbrand pharmaceuticals.

On July 1, U.S. District Court Judge Marvin J. Garbis sentenced Pamela Arrey of Glenelg, MD, to 57 months in prison followed by 3 years of supervised release for health care fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to misbrand pharmaceuticals. Arrey, a licensed pharmacist, will also be required to forfeit her home and pay restitution of $505,745.89.

According to Arrey’s guilty plea, she owned and operated two pharmacies trading as the Medicine Shoppe and located in Baltimore. From January 2003 to July 2008, Arrey identified patients who had filled prescriptions at her pharmacies and for whom the physician authorized refills that had never been requested. She then claimed reimbursement from health care benefit programs, using patients’ personal identifying information, for refills of those prescriptions, although no drugs were ever dispensed to customers. Arrey’s pharmacies fraudulently obtained more than $500,000 through this scheme, and the proceeds were deposited into her Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy bank account.

In her plea, Arrey also admitted to misbranding and relabeling prescription drugs purchased in large drums from an unlicensed supplier for resale in her pharmacies. She then filled prescription orders for pharmacy customers with misbranded pharmaceuticals including metformin and gabapentin.

On July 7, 2008, the Maryland Board of Pharmacy conducted a surprise inspection of on of the Medicine Shoppe locations and recovered 11 drums of misbranded pharmaceuticals containing more than 200,000 misbranded pills. Later that month, federal agents searched the pharmacies and Arrey’s home. They recovered drugs from the pharmacies with expiration dates removed and others with altered labels and seized expired controlled substances from Arrey’s home including oxycodone, fentanyl, amphetamine, and morphine.

Posted by Alex Egervary (aegervary@aphanet.org)
July 8, 2010, 4:30 pm