Zach Wendling
LINCOLN — A Nebraska pharmacist sentenced last fall for dispensing generic medications for name-brand drugs or processing claims despite not filling prescriptions lost her pharmacist license this month.
Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers announced Tuesday that Danelle Charf, 49, who was sentenced Nov. 20 in federal court for one felony count of making a false, fictitious and fraudulent statement in connection with health care services, lost her pharmacist license following an April 2 hearing.
She is barred from seeking reinstatement of her license for at least two years.
“The chief medical officer for the State of Nebraska found Ms. Charf, while operating pharmacies in Neligh and Tilden, fraudulently billed patients for name-brand prescriptions but filled those orders with generic medications,” a news release states.
According to the guilty plea Charf agreed to make last June, Charf owned and operated Wanek Pharmacy in Neligh, Nebraska, from at least January 2016 to January 2021, and Tilden Pharmacy in Tilden, Nebraska, from at least August 2018 to January 2021. The pharmacies regularly submitted documents for reimbursements for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.
A pharmacy intern filed a complaint in September 2020 that led federal and state investigators to interview current and former employees as well as some beneficiaries at random.
Multiple employees reported that the pharmacies would submit false claims for name brand medications despite dispensing generic medications or processing claims despite not filling a customer’s prescriptions, according to the Nebraska U.S. Attorney’s Office.
In one case, a Medicare recipient was supposed to receive 120 blisters of Advair, for asthma and COPD, but received 60 blisters of a different medication — fluticasone propionate.
Investigators compared reimbursement claims and estimated a total loss of $573,337.53 — $369,837.38 in Neligh and $203,500.15 in Tilden.
In November, Charf was sentenced to two months in prison with three years of supervised release. She is required to pay back the defrauded money — $546,142.04 to U.S. Medicare and $27,195.49 to Nebraska Medicaid. She also was ordered to pay a $5,000 civil penalty.
Charf must pay at least $100 a month, or 5% of her gross income, whichever is greater, until her restitution is paid, according to the plea agreement.