Pharmacist sentenced for health-care fraud

KENNETT, Mo. -- A Kennett pharmacist was sentenced in U.S. District Court Wednesday after pleading guilty to health-care fraud, the Daily Dunklin Democrat reported. Brian Keith Mitchell, 51, was sentenced to six months in prison and six additional months of home confinement, and ordered to pay $120,000 in restitution. Mitchell Health Mart Pharmacy was placed under two years' probation. In April, Mitchell pleaded guilty to one felony count of health-care fraud and appeared for sentencing before U.S. Eastern Missouri District Court Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. in Cape Girardeau. Mitchell admitted billing for more expensive drugs than he actually dispensed, issuing unauthorized modifications to prescriptions, improper prescription labeling, dispensing without prescription and record-keeping violations, according to documents from the U.S. attorney's office. The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General Office of Investigations, the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the Missouri attorney general's office, the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Missouri Board of Pharmacy.