U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin said on Tuesday that Trivillian’s Pharmacy, in Kanawha City, West Virginia, was sentenced in federal court in Charleston to three years of probation for federal health care and drug crimes.
Trivillian’s Pharmacy entered guilty pleas on Feb. 25 to health care fraud and misbranding drugs. Trivillian’s Pharmacy said it defrauded Medicare and Medicaid by dispensing compounded drugs while billing for more expensive brand-name drugs, dispensing generic drugs while billing for more expensive brand name drugs, billing for drugs that were never dispensed, and dispensing drugs that were compounded outside of a safe and clean environment.
“Pharmacists and pharmacies hold positions of trust in our communities. Patients trust them to provide the medicines they need and bill correctly for the medicines they dispense,” Goodwin said. “The crimes committed in this case represent a substantial breach of that trust. Here, the pharmacist and the pharmacy she owned were held accountable for their crimes and the programs they stole from were made whole. This should send a message to others who would engage in such conduct.”
As part of the plea, Trivillian’s Pharmacy agreed to make restitution to the Medicare and Medicaid programs in the amount of $355,312.19 and to forfeit an additional $355,312.19 worth of proceeds from the fraud schemes to the United States.
Paula J. Butterfield, former owner and president of Trivillian’s Pharmacy, was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
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