A couple who ran Broad Street Family Pharmacy in South Philly, and a pharmacist who worked there, are charged with scheming to defraud Medicare and Medicaid of $20 million. The business closed in 2021, and this screen capture shows the exterior of its building at 1416 S. Broad St. in 2018.
The couple who ran a South Philly pharmacy raided three years ago have been charged with scheming to defraud $20 million from Medicare and Medicaid by submitting false claims for expensive drugs using prescriptions they had paid customers to bring to the business, state authorities said.
The owner of Broad Street Family Pharmacy, Elizabeth Thompson, and her husband, Peter Dello Buono, a pharmacist whose license had been suspended before this investigation, are among nine people facing charges, the Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry's office announced Thursday. Thompson and Dello Buono, both 70, allegedly orchestrated the fraud with Frank Bengermino, 70, a pharmacist who ran the business day-to-day, investigators said.
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All three are accused of paying some customers cash to bring their prescriptions to the pharmacy at 1416 S. Broad St., between 2016 and 2021. These prescriptions were then submitted for federal benefits coverage but the prescriptions were rarely filled, authorities said.
Most of the false claims were for HIV medications and the antipsychotic drug Latuda, which pay out high reimbursements through Medicaid and Medicare.
"The owner and operator of this pharmacy were essentially pretending to fill prescriptions for expensive medications, while defrauding the Medicaid and Medicare programs of millions of dollars with a sophisticated scheme involving nearly a dozen co-conspirators," Attorney General Michelle Henry said.
The owners of the pharmacy allegedly paid their customers kickbacks for selling back pills, offering cash and other medications. The pharmacy shut down shortly after a search warrant was executed at the business in the fall of 2021.
Thompson, Dello Buono and Bengermino are all charged with Medicaid fraud, dealing in unlawful proceeds, theft by deception, conspiracy, and other offenses. Similar charges were filed against Berry Davis, 59; Brian O'Hara, 52; Michael McCue, 68; Evan Gusz, 54; and Angelo Amorosi, 62.