Aimee Green/The Oregonian/OregonLive
A Portland pharmacist who investigators say cheated Medicare and Medicaid out of $825,000 from his tiny nondescript storefront along Northeast Sandy Boulevard was sentenced to one and a half years in prison.
Hung Viet Tran, 68, was booked into Multnomah County jail on Tuesday, March 8, 2016. (Photo: Courtesy of MCSO)
Hung Viet Tran, 68, pleaded guilty in January to multiple counts of healthcare fraud in Multnomah County Circuit Court for running what prosecutors said was a four-year scheme of billing the federal government for brand-name prescription drugs that he never dispensed.
In some cases, instead of brand-name drugs, Tran would give customers cheaper over-the-counter medication or generic drugs.
For example, Tran personally bought about 70,000 Costco fish-oil capsules at a cost of 2.4 cents each, investigators said. He then turned around and billed the government $1.64 per capsule, claiming that he had dispensed prescription omega-3 fatty acid capsules to his patients.
In some cases, Tran ignored prescriptions and didn’t dispense any medications at all. Another pharmacist, who had started filling prescriptions for some of Tran’s former customers, complained to the Oregon Board of Pharmacy that the people hadn’t received all of the medications their doctors had prescribed.
Tran was the sole pharmacist at Tran Pharmacy, 7424 N.E. Sandy Boulevard. He voluntarily relinquished his pharmacist’s license.
Before his sentencing, Tran paid $825,000 in restitution to Medicare and Medicaid.
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