Pubdate: Thu, 27 Jun 2002
Source: Wilmington Morning Star (NC)
Copyright: 2002 Wilmington Morning Star
Contact:  http://www.wilmingtonstar.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/500
Author: Amy E. Turnbull, Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin)

MEDICAID STING: 32 PEOPLE CHARGED WITH MEDICAL ASSISTANCE RECIPIENT FRAUD

WHITEVILLE | At least two dozen people were arrested in Columbus County on 
Wednesday, charged with selling their Medicaid cards to drug dealers who 
then used the cards to get cut-rate narcotics from pharmacies and sell them 
on the street at an enormous profit.

Columbus County Sheriff Jimmy Ferguson explained that in all, 32 people 
from Whiteville, Chadbourn and Tabor City have been charged with 53 counts 
of medical assistance recipient fraud. Some are charged with felonies and 
some with misdemeanors, depending on the dollar amount of the fraud.

Tuesday, federal, state and local law enforcement officers arrested 24 
people, ranging in age from 21 to 63, saying the defendants had illegally 
sold their Medicaid prescription cards for $20 to $200. Warrants were 
issued charging nine other people with the same crime, but they had not 
been served by press time. One investigator said a similar ring had been 
caught in South Carolina, but Sheriff Ferguson said he believes this is the 
first operation of its type in North Carolina.

WHAT THEY FOUND

Columbus County Detective Sergeant Brent Lanier explained that welfare 
recipients along the Columbus County-Horry County, S.C., line sold their 
Medicaid cards to people who then forged prescriptions for heavy drugs - 
usually OxyContin, known as "hillbilly heroin."

With the Medicaid card, the forger would only have to pay $3 for a 
prescription, which he would then break up, selling the pills individually 
for $80 apiece. Using the Medicaid card increased the profit margin, Sgt. 
Lanier said; instead of having to pay $800 to get a forged OxyContin 
prescription filled, the forger would only have to pay $3 for the same drugs.

The government was left to pick up the balance of the tab, costing county 
taxpayers in excess of $1 million over the past year, Sheriff Ferguson 
estimated. The only people arrested in Tuesday's roundup were those who 
allegedly sold their Medicaid cards. More arrests are expected as 
investigators move up the supply chain to the card buyers, the prescription 
forgers and the drug dealers.

The bigger fish will probably face federal charges, while those arrested 
this week will go to state court, Sgt. Lanier said.  "This is not the end 
of the investigation," Sheriff Ferguson said. "This is the beginning."

HOW THEY FOUND IT

Jean Jacobs, Teresa Sellers and Sheila Dorsett, investigators with Columbus 
County's Department of

|Social Services, said that several months ago, they started getting calls 
from pharmacists who were suspicious of OxyContin prescriptions that they 
were receiving.

They turned the information over to an investigator and pharmacist with the 
state's Division of Medical Assistance in Raleigh. The investigator found 
that there were an inordinate number of OxyContin prescriptions originating 
from welfare recipients in Columbus County, Ms. Jacobs said.

In fact, Medicaid was being used for OxyContin in Columbus County more 
frequently than anyplace else in the state, Ms. Sellers added.

Also suspicious was that Columbus County Medicaid patients seemed to be 
filling their prescriptions outside the county - in Charlotte, Clinton, 
Fayetteville and elsewhere.

The investigation ultimately reached out from law enforcement in Columbus 
County to the state bureau of investigations, the Drug Enforcement 
Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services and the 
Department of Justice.

The joint investigation culminated in Tuesday's roundup.

The three Social Services investigators said that by the end of May, they 
had recovered nearly $146,000 in fraudulent claims. More will come with 
Tuesday's arrests.

WHO THEY ARRESTED

Each person charged with selling his Medicaid card faces either a felony or 
a misdemeanor, the level of the charge depending on the amount the county 
had to pay - in excess of the $3 co-pay - to fill the forged prescriptions. 
Those charged with more than $400 in fraud faces a felony.

Since each welfare recipient receives a new card every month, some of the 
defendants face several counts, accused of selling several of their monthly 
cards.

Each defendant's bond was set at $750 for a felony charge and $300 for a 
misdemeanor.

Groups of the defendants lived in the same neighborhoods or in close 
proximity, Sheriff Ferguson said.

Some of those who were picked up Tuesday said they were also victims of the 
drug ring.

Elizabeth Smith sat angry and tired inside Seller's Bail Bonding, waiting 
for her son, Joseph Miller, to sign the papers necessary for his release.

Ms. Smith, 46, of Miller Road in Tabor City, said law enforcement officers 
surrounded her house Tuesday morning, then burst in with the media, looking 
for her son. They turned her house inside-out before finding her son in his 
own house, four doors down, she said. And she wants an apology.

Meanwhile, Joseph Miller, 23, interjected from the bondsman's countertop 
where he awaited his paperwork. He was pepper-sprayed while he slept, he 
said, and besides, his Medicaid card was stolen from his mailbox. He didn't 
sell it to anybody.

Mr. Miller is charged with selling two of his monthly cards, leading to 
fraud in the amount of $1,360. That means he faces two felonies.

His mother said he can't read or write more than his name, and that he 
didn't report the cards stolen because he doesn't need to go to the doctor 
very often. He just doesn't need the cards much.

Annie Dixon, 39, also of Miller Road, is one of five people in her family 
who was charged in Tuesday's round-up. Not only was her mother was 
arrested, but agents surrounded her sister in a field, and arrested her as 
she bent over to pick butter beans.

Ms. Dixon said she didn't sell her card - she never got it. She said she 
lives about a half-mile from Mr. Miller and his mother, and many of those 
arrested live in the same area of Tabor City.

For Sheriff Ferguson, the stolen card theory doesn't hold water because 
none of those arrested had reported their cards stolen prior to Tuesday's 
round-up.

All 24 defendants are due in court in Columbus County today.
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