Central Kentucky pharmacist pleads guilty in $100,000 false billing case

A Central Kentucky pharmacist pleaded guilty to submitting false claims for more than $100,000 in Medicaid payments.

Justin T. Bell pleaded guilty Oct. 10 in federal court to one count of making a false statement in connection with a payment from a federally funded health program.

Bell, then the owner of the Georgetown pharmacy, solicited “unwitting” Medicaid participants in March and April 2020 to receive an expensive product called a Siltrex pad, intended to control or prevent scarring resulting from burns, surgery or trauma, according to his plea agreement.

Court records show that at the time, the Kentucky Medicaid program paid the pharmacies $14,827.66 for a box of 12 Siltrex pads.

At Bell’s direction, the pharmacy submitted claims for eight boxes of pads, resulting in a $118,621 payment to Medicaid.

According to the settlement, the claims were fraudulent and ineligible for reimbursement because they did not serve a medically necessary purpose.

The document shows that people who received sanitary pads in some cases did not even use them.

U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove scheduled Bell’s sentencing for February.

The charge carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, but Bell’s sentence will likely be less than that under advisory federal guidelines.

Bell agreed to pay Medicaid restitution of at least $118,621.