Five Lower Mainland pharmacists fined thousands in prescription scam
Posted October 12, 2020 3:16 pm.
Last Updated October 12, 2020 3:17 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Five Lower Mainland pharmacists have been fined and punished for processing more than 20,000 fake prescriptions to artificially inflate drug sales at their pharmacies, putting patients at risk.
In decisions spanning the last couple months, the College of Pharmacists of B.C. found Da Deul Kim, Gary Tse-Hong Shum, Jenny Phu, Henry Yu Qu Liang, and Patrick Quon had all participated in the scam at locations in Vancouver, North Vancouver, and Richmond between January 2012 and June 2018.
“Transactions were processed as one-day supplies or seven-day supplies, for the sole purpose of artificially inflating prescription counts,” says the decision.
According to the college, the pharmacists reported feeling pressured by the owner to artificially inflate drug sales, and they didn’t personally financially gain anything from the scam.
Medications, including prescriptions, over-the-counter, and vitamins, were not actually dispensed to patients in each case as part of the false claims, made through PharmaNet records, according to the college.
Some of the pharmacists used the information for themselves, family, or former pharmacy employees, which could have led to bad medical records if they ever needed real help.
“Transactions were processed not for the purpose of providing health care and were not processed with each patient’s voluntary consent,” says the college.
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The College’s investigation also found 10,000 transactions for medications that were authorized but processed as one-day supplies or seven-day supplies when they weren’t supposed to be. The medications for these transactions were not actually dispensed to the patient on a daily or weekly basis, making each patient’s records inaccurate and not current.
Kim, Phu, and Quon were fined $3,000 each while Liang and Shum paid $1,000. All also had a number of other conditions including taking ethics courses, being barred from being a pharmacy manager for 180 days, and having the matter on their permanent record.
