NEWARK — A 39-year-old South Jersey woman who worked for a pharmaceutical company admitted her role in a multi-pronged scheme that cost her employer nearly a $1 million.
Julie Andresen, of Haddonfield, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud in federal court in Newark on Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Jersey said.
She collected $161,378 in kickbacks from an out-of-state marketing company that orchestrated the fraud and bilked the pharmaceutical firm out of $956,885, authorities said.
Andresen’s part in the scam involved arranging through a doctor to obtain and fill medically-unnecessary prescriptions through her company’s prescription drug plan. She gave the doctor pre-printed forms listing compounded medications and asked the doctor to authorize the medications as well as multiple re-fills.
Andresen then faxed prescriptions to out-of-state compounding pharmacies as directed by the marketing firm.
The compounding pharmacies would next bill Andresen’s prescription drug benefit plan. The pharmaceutical company’s prescription drug benefit plan reimbursed the compounding pharmacies $13,572 to $43,689 for each compounded medication Andresen and her husband received.
The marketing company received a portion of that money and then passed on percentage of their cut to Andresen.
Andresen faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when she is sentenced June 7.
Court papers didn’t name the company that employed Andersen or the marketing firm.
Two other employees of the pharmaceutical last summer previously pleaded guilty to the same offense – Stephanie Naar, 27, of St. Louis and Peter Pappas, 44, of Drexel Hill, Pa. Neither has been sentenced yet.
Pappas also admitted he recruited others to participate in the scam.
Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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