Company covers state costs in pharmacy fraud

Friday, Aug. 24, 2001 | 10:55 a.m.

Rite Aid Corp. has paid $200,000 to the state to cover the liability for one of its Las Vegas pharmacists cheating the Medicaid system, the state attorney general's office said Thursday.

Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa said Rite Aid did not know about the fraudulent acts of pharmacist James B. Beck, who pleaded guilty to felony Medicaid fraud in August 2000.

Beck was placed on five years' probation and ordered to pay $15,000 in restitution. Tim Terry, director of the Medicaid Fraud Unit, said Beck had left the state and has not made his payment.

Terry said Beck caused Rite Aid to bill Medicaid for drugs that were supposedly delivered to nursing home patients but were actually diverted by Beck to other places.

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