NC pharmacy owner sentenced to prison for $4 million in fraudulent Medicare, Medicaid billing

The owner of a Robeson County pharmacy was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison for billing the government for medication patients never received.

According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, James Craig Bell, 63, owned Townsend's Pharmacy and fraudulently billed Medicare and Medicaid between 2006 and 2017. Bell pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud in October.

“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," said U.S. Attorney Michael Easley.

Bell's former employee, Melisha Oxendine West, 51, pleaded guilty to the same scheme and was also sentenced to two years in prison.

A news release said Bell trained West and other employees how to bill healthcare benefit plans like Medicare and Medicaid for medications that were not authorized or dispensed.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, West began running the pharmacy on her own while Bell continued to benefit from the fraudulent billing.

WRAL News could not find an online presence for Townsend's Pharmacy, and the phone was disconnected.