Pharmacy Owner and Technician Both Sentenced to Prison for Health Care Fraud

RALEIGH, N.C. – James Craig Bell, 63, was sentenced today to 24 months for conspiracy to commit health care fraud in connection with a scheme through his pharmacy in Robeson County that had operated under the name Townsend’s Pharmacy.  Mr. Bell previously pled guilty to the charge in October 2022.  Mr. Bell’s codefendant and former employee, Melisha Oxendine West, 51, was sentenced last month following her guilty plea to 24 months imprisonment followed by 3 years of supervised release in connection with the same scheme.

“People who steal taxpayer-funded programs intended to provide healthcare to the needy will be investigated and prosecuted,” said U.S. Attorney Michael Easley. “For over a decade, Bell and his pharmacy fraudulently billed Medicare and Medicaid over $4 million for medicine he never actually gave to patients. That money should have gone to getting vital medications to those in need.”

Beginning as early as 2006 through July 2017, Bell, acting through Townsend’s Pharmacy, billed Medicare, Medicaid, and various private health plans for prescription drugs that were never actually dispensed by the pharmacy.  Bell had trained West and other employees on how to bill health care benefit plans for drugs that were not authorized or dispensed.  Bell also trained employees to falsely reauthorize a previously existing prescription from a licensed medical professional, and, how to falsely bill health care benefit programs as though a drug had been dispensed. West began independently running the pharmacy’s operations while Bell continued to knowingly profit from the fraudulent billing practices.  This fraud scheme in total cost Medicare and North Carolina Medicaid over $4M in fraudulent billings by conservative estimates.

"When providers submit false claims to Medicare and Medicaid, they take valuable, taxpayer-funded resources away from patients," said Tamala E. Miles, Special Agent in Charge at the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG). "HHS-OIG is proud to work with our partners to hold accountable those who attempt to illegitimately profit off of federal health care programs."

Michael Easley, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, made the announcement after U.S. District Judge Louise W. Flanagan announced the sentence.  The United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General is investigating the case and Assistant U.S. Attorney David G. Beraka is prosecuting the cases.

Related court documents and information can be found on the website of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina or on PACER by searching for Cases No. 7:22-cr-00107-FL and 7:21-cr-00129-FL.