Receptionist at Pittsburgh Doctor’s Office Charged with Diverting Thousands of Prescription Pain Pills

HARRISBURG, Pa., Aug. 26 -- The Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office issued the following news release:

Narcotics and Insurance Fraud agents from the Attorney General's office charged a Pittsburgh woman, who was a receptionist at an Allegheny County doctor's office, with using the doctor's name and prescription pad to illegally obtain thousands of doses of pain medication. She is also charged with using her insurance to pay for the drugs.

Attorney General Tom Corbett said that Dolores Ricci, 52, 1505 Grandview Ave., Pittsburgh, allegedly called in or wrote prescriptions to various pharmacies using either her name or the name of her boyfriend, her cousin, or her daughter. Either she or her boyfriend would then pick up the prescriptions.

According to the criminal complaint, Ricci and her boyfriend obtained approximately 1,500 Oxycontin pills, 14,000 Vicodin pills, or its generic equivalent Hydrocodone-Acetaminophen, and 4,300 Ativan pills, or its generic equivalent Lorazepam.

Corbett said that Ricci allegedly wrote a prescription for herself every one or two weeks for the last several years.

According to the criminal complaint, the prescriptions were submitted to various Allegheny County pharmacies and about $10,000 of the fraudulent prescriptions were paid for using Highmark Insurance or Express Scripts insurance.

Ricci is charged with three counts of obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresentation, fraud, forgery, deceit or subterfuge. Each charge is a felony carrying a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. She is also charged with one count of insurance fraud and one count of theft by deception; both charges are third-degree felonies carrying a maximum penalty of seven years in prison and a $15,000 fine.

Ricci is also charged with one count of forgery, a first-degree misdemeanor carrying a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Ricci was preliminarily arraigned before Allegheny County Magisterial District Judge James J. Handley, Jr. and released on her own recognizance.

Ricci will be prosecuted in Allegheny County by Senior Deputy Attorney General Dennis A. Kistler of the Attorney General's Insurance Fraud Section and Deputy Attorney General Tomm A. Mutschler of the Attorney General's Drug Strike Force Section.

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