Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 19, 1995 TAG: 9509190067
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Joseph Chopski, owner of Wonder Drug in Stewartsville, is accused of padding the bills he submitted to insurance companies by $3,035 from January 1991 to June 1993. He was indicted last month on 19 counts of wire fraud and five counts of mail fraud for mailing and phoning in false bills, according to the government.
Each count carries a sentence of up to five years in jail and a $250,000 fine. Both Chopski personally and his corporation, Health Spectrum, which does business as Wonder Drug, were charged.
The government claims Chopski began to pad his bills after an electronic billing system was installed at the pharmacy he ran with his wife, Beatrice, also a registered pharmacist. When patients insured by Trigon used Wonder Drug, he would electronically bill Trigon according to an agreed-on formula, plus a dispensing fee. When a Medicaid patient used Wonder Drug, Chopski would mail a bill to Richmond and would periodically receive a check for those claims.
The indictment alleges that in early 1991, Chopski began billing Medicaid and Trigon for prescriptions never filled. The charges the government believes were false usually were tacked onto larger bills submitted for actual patients, according to court papers.
Some of those people continue to be customers, Chopski's attorneys said.
FBI agent John Butler alleged in a search warrant affidavit that when confronted, Chopski said he submitted the bills to cover losses he incurred by participating in Trigon's program. He offered to make a monetary settlement to avoid charges, the affidavit claims.
Tony Anderson, one of Chopski's lawyers, however, maintains that small-time Wonder Drug was caught in a squeeze by Trigon to ``really turn up the heat between competing pharmacists.''
by CNB