CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The owner of a popular Charleston pharmacy pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal fraud charge.
U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin said Paula Butterfield, Trillivian’s Pharmacy owner and pharmacist-in-charge, admitted that her pharmacy defrauded Medicare and Medicaid by distributing less expensive compound drugs while charging customers for more expensive brand name drugs. Butterfield confessed she sold generic drugs while charging people for brand names.
Butterfield admitted to billing drugs that were never handed out. She plead guilty to sending false information claims to Medicare by seeking payment for drugs never provided to her. The pharmacy also confessed to dispensing compound drugs under labels and identification numbers connected to brand name drugs.
“Cheating Medicare and Medicaid is really cheating the American taxpayer,” Goodwin said in a released statement. “Thanks to these prosecutions and this settlement, money that was taken from the taxpayers by fraud can now be used to provide health care to the many people who depend on these programs.”
Butterfield faces five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The pharmacy faces a fine of $1 million or twice the gross financial gain or loss from Trivillian’s conduct — whichever is greater.
Sentencings in both cases are scheduled for May 28. Butterfield’s attorney told the court Wednesday Trivillian’s, located in Kanawha City, would be sold before the sentencing.