PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The owner of a Port Richmond pharmacy has been ordered to pay $875,000 after pleading guilty to insurance claim fraud, Attorney General Michelle Henry announced Tuesday.
A grand jury investigation determined that Ahmed Bachir, owner of Aramingo Pharmacy, billed health insurance providers, including Medicaid, for prescription medications that were never provided to patients from June 2019 to June 2021.
The grand jury found that the pharmacy billed for brand-name drugs while dispensing the generic form; asked customers' doctors to prescribe unnecessary medications or to replace prescribed medications with more expensive alternatives; and billed insurance companies for prescription refills without ever dispensing them to customers, keeping the full payment.
In restitution for the years-long scheme, Bachir, 32, is required to pay $573,992 to the health insurance providers and $300,866 to the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services' Bureau of Program Integrity — for a total of $874,858.
Bachir's pharmacist license will be suspended for a period of five years.