BOSTON — A Worcester-based pharmacy has agreed to pay $750,000 to resolve allegations it violated the False Claims Act by billing Medicare for medications it could not prove it had purchased or stocked, federal officials said Thursday.
According to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, Trang Pharmacy (Trang), which has an address of 456 Park Avenue in Worcester, admitted that between Jan. 1, 2016, and Jan. 13, 2023, it submitted claims to Medicare’s Part D program seeking reimbursement for dispensing certain medications in specific dosages and units without being able to demonstrate it had purchased the drugs from wholesalers or manufacturers for retail sale, according to a settlement agreement.
As a result, the government alleged the pharmacy submitted false claims to Medicare for reimbursement for medications that were not actually dispensed to Medicare beneficiaries.
Under the settlement agreement, Trang will pay $750,000 with interest accruing at 4.125% per year starting Dec. 16, 2025. The payment will be made in two installments of $375,000 plus interest — the first due within 30 days of the agreement’s effective date and the second due within one year.
The resolution was the result of a coordinated effort between the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts and the Justice Department’s Civil Division, Commercial Litigation Branch, Fraud Section, prosecutors said.
U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley announced the settlement. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said the matter was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Sharobem of the office’s Affirmative Civil Enforcement Unit, with assistance from the Civil Fraud Branch of the U.S. Department of Justice.
