By Paul Waldmiller
Did you know you could be purchasing fake or old medications from your pharmacy?
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services assistant special agent, Fernando Porras who is assigned to the Office of Inspector General stated that South Florida, states that drug diversion in South Florida is a huge problem.
Porras stated further that “drug diversion” operates like this: “A patient picks up a prescription valued at thousands of dollars and sells it to an aggregator for a fraction of the price. The buyer, known as an aggregator, removes the label and sells it to a wholesaler who then sells it back to a pharmacy at a discount. A pharmacy could easily bill the Medicare program two and three million dollars doing this scheme.”
Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General states that drug diversion is just one of many ways criminals here in Florida steal billions of dollars from Medicare each year. Commenting further, Porras is quoted as saying, “Unfortunately, South Florida is the epicenter of Medicare fraud.”
Drug diversion can be also be done through undercounting pills, recycling of old medications, or returned medications via house cleaners, hotel workers or others who pillage through homes and even patients and pharmacists who are involved in insurance fraud.