RALEIGH, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — A settlement of more than has been reached to resolve allegations that an Indian Trail pharmacy submitted false claims to the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein announced Monday that MedCare Clinic & Pharmacy LLC will have to pay more than $226,000 for the fraud that stretched three years. The funds from this settlement will return taxpayer funds to Medicare and the state Medicaid program.
From Jan. 1, 2016, through Dec. 31, 2019, MedCare allegedly submitted or caused to be submitted reimbursement claims to Medicare and Medicaid for pharmaceutical drug dosages and units that weren’t actually distributed to the two programs’ beneficiaries. Additionally, MedCare, on Idlewild Road in the Hemby Bridge community, also allegedly failed to properly return those drugs to stock when people failed to pick them up.
“When health care providers cheat the Medicaid and Medicare programs, they’re wasting taxpayer resources that should go toward people’s health care,” said Attorney General Josh Stein in a statement. “My office will hold accountable health care providers who commit fraud against taxpayers.”
This settlement results from a whistleblower lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.