Jennifer Caloia, Health Care Fraud, New York 2021

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – Jennifer Caloia, a licensed pharmacist and former owner of Dougherty Pharmacy in Morrisville, New York, pleaded guilty to health care fraud in federal court in Utica.

Between 2011 and 2015, Caloia defrauded public and private health insurance programs by submitting false and fraudulent claims for prescription drugs that the pharmacy did not dispense. She admitted to changing the names of some prescription drugs in the pharmacy's software to submit fraudulent claims while providing customers with the appropriate labels and instructions.

Caloia personally obtained $110,431.02 in unrecovered proceeds in connection with her health care fraud scheme. She has agreed to pay restitution in the amount of $110,431.02 to the public and private insurers affected by her fraud scheme.

In a separately negotiated civil settlement, Caloia and her company agreed to pay $92,308.76 related to her submission of false claims to public insurers such as Medicare and Medicaid. The relator in this case will receive $19,332.76 of the settlement proceeds.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General; the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the U.S. Department of Labor-Employee Benefits Security Administration (DOL EBSA), New York Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit; and the New York State Department of Financial Services.

Sentencing is scheduled for February 24, 2021, in federal court in Utica. Caloia faces up to ten years in prison; a fine of up to $250,000; and a term of supervised release of up to 3 years.

The defendant is Jennifer Caloia, a 56-year-old licensed pharmacist who owned and operated Dougherty Pharmacy in Morrisville, New York, from 1998 to 2015.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndny/pr/former-pharmacy-owner-pleads-guilty-health-care-fraud