TUCSON – Tracy
C. Florez, 42, of Tucson, was sentenced on August 6 to five years probation
and ordered to pay $36,933 in restitution, by United States District Judge
Cindy K. Jorgenson in Tucson.
At the defendant’s
change of plea, Florez admitted to the following facts:
- Defendant TRACY FLOREZ
(hereafter “FLOREZ”),
40, was a resident of Tucson, Arizona, and was employed as a medical assistant
for a Tucson gynecologist, from approximately July 1, 1998 to approximately
March 31, 2005.
- As part of her duties,
defendant FLOREZ was authorized to pay bills of the medical practice with
checks drawn upon the medical practice’s
bank accounts, using the doctor’s signature stamp. Defendant was not
authorized to use the funds of the medical practice to pay her personal
debts. From July 9, 2003, until March 23, 2005, defendant FLOREZ fraudulently
paid approximately 74 personal debts totaling approximately $32,000, using
the doctor’s signature stamp on checks drawn on the medical practice.
- FLOREZ was not authorized to use her position as medical assistant at
the medical practice to prescribe any medications, including pain
medications, nor to use prescription pads for the benefit of herself nor
any other person, nor use the signature stamp for creating prescriptions,
nor to call in prescriptions to pharmacies for herself or her family members.
- From approximately May 4, 2004 until approximately April 5, 2005, defendant
FLOREZ fraudulently created at least three prescriptions in her
name for Vicoprofen, a Schedule III controlled substance, and transmitted
these fraudulent prescriptions to pharmacies in the Tucson area.
- From approximately February 4, 2003 until March 22, 2005, defendant FLOREZ
fraudulently created at least 94 prescriptions in the name of
her husband, David Florez, for Hydrocodone and Phentermine, Schedule III
and IV controlled substances, and transmitted these fraudulent prescriptions
to pharmacies in the Tucson area.
- On or about March 14, 2005, in Tucson FLOREZ knowingly
and willfully executed, and attempted to execute, a scheme
and artifice to defraud a health care benefit program in the connection
with the delivery of and payment for health care benefits, items, and services,
by forging and presenting to a Tucson pharmacy a prescription in the name
of David Florez, Sr. for 120 units of Vicoprofen, 7.5 mg., a Schedule III
controlled substance, which presented the purported signature of a physician
in order to obtain insurance co-payment from ESI Scripts in the amount of
$90.41 for a Schedule II controlled substance.
- The total losses to insurance
companies due to health insurance payments for fraudulent
prescriptions written by the defendant was approximately $4,933.
- That, on October 25,
2004 and March 22, 2005 in Tucson, defendant FLOREZ, did
knowingly and intentionally possess 120 units of Vicoprofen 7.5 mg. and
120 units of 7.5 mg. Hydrocodone, respectively.
Florez had entered a pleas of guilty on April 16, 2006 to one count of health
care fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1347(2),
and two counts of possession of a controlled substance, in violation of Title
21, United States Code, Section 844(a).
The investigation in this case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The prosecution was
handled by the United States Attorney’s Office
for the District of Arizona, Tucson.
CASE NUMBER: CR–5-1798-TUC-CKJ
RELEASE NUMBER: 2007-178(Florez)