Levittown Pharmacy Owner Fined $250K Over Alleged Fraud

LEVITTOWN, PA — The owner of Penndel Drugs, Inc. and one of his employees have agreed to pay $250,000 to the state to resolve their liability under the False Claims Act, after the employee was shown to be a convicted felon employed at the pharmacy in violation of health care law.

According to the federal government, employee Mark Zulewski was convicted of a felony controlled substance offense in 2010. His pharmacy license was suspended, and in 2011 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services opted to exclude him from participation in federal health care programs.

Pharmacy owner Kaushal Patel, who owns Kass Management & Consulting, hired Zulewski to work in his pharmacies after the offense, Acting United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams said — and allowed him to continue working there after his exclusion from practicing health care.

The federal government contends that, from August 2010 until March 2017, Patel gave Zulewski administrative authority as well as his pharmacist log-in credentials so that Zulewski could manage Patel’s pharmacies and occasionally fill prescriptions when pharmacists-in-charge were unavailable.

The government’s grounds for the $250,000 payout are that the company, Patel, Zulewski, and the pharmacies knowingly disregarded Zulewski’s exclusion from working in health care programs. They say claims for payment made during that period, to federal programs including Medicare, Medicaid, and the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program, were fraudulent.

“The United States will pursue those who violate a federal health care exclusion and those who knowingly allow excluded individuals to provide goods or services to federal program beneficiaries,” Williams said. “An individual convicted of a controlled substances offense, as Zulewski was, must not be allowed behind the pharmacy counter during his exclusion to handle prescription drugs, including narcotics, and dispense them to federal program beneficiaries.”

A private party, who under the False Claims Act could claim some of the money recovered, filed the suit in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The suit is United States of America, ex rel. LaGrossa v. Kass Management & Consulting, LLC, et al., Civil Action No. 15-6844.

“Exclusions protect Medicare and Medicaid patients and safeguard the integrity of these vital programs,” Gregory Demske, Chief Counsel to the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said. “Anyone who circumvents an exclusion undermines the goal of ensuring Medicare and Medicaid patients receive safe, appropriate, and high-quality, services.”

Zulewski, Patel, Kass Management & Consulting, and the phamacies of the Belmont Pharmacy, LLC; Bensalem Pharmacy; Big Oak Pharmacy, Inc.; Doylestown Drugs, LLC; Family One Pharmacy; Penndel Drugs, Inc.; Penlar Pharmacy; and Medical Plaza Pharmacy have all agreed to the payment.

Although a $250,000 settlement was reached, the federal government’s claims are allegations and no official liability has been determined.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Assistant U.S. Attorney Judith A.K. Amorosa, and Fraud Investigator Jeffrey Braun.

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