HARRISBURG – Attorney General Michelle Henry announced that a former certified registered nurse practitioner from western Pennsylvania was sentenced Thursday to 11.5 to 23 months followed by 8 years of probation for writing fraudulent prescriptions for thousands of Oxycodone pills.
Joseph G. Sapp, 56, previously pleaded guilty to possession with intent to deliver, Medicaid fraud, forgery, and related charges.
A collaborative investigation led by the Office of Attorney General’s Bureau of Narcotics Investigations and Medicaid Fraud Control Unit revealed Sapp wrote prescriptions to be filled at pharmacies in Westmoreland, Allegheny, Fayette, and Washington counties.
Sapp wrote the prescriptions for himself and for others, in exchange for money, defrauding Medicaid in the process.
“The defendant had a professional responsibility to prescribe medications for people in need, and instead, betrayed his duties by contributing to the opioid epidemic and expanding access to Oxycodone,” Attorney General Henry said. “Those who administer these powerful medications will be held to the highest standard, and remain accountable when they break the law.”
The Office of Attorney General was assisted by the Penn Township Police Department, the Westmoreland County Drug Task Force, the Westmoreland County Sheriff’s Office, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
During an interview, Sapp admitted to using Medicaid fraudulently to submit false claims for prescriptions that were not medically necessary, and to illegally picking up prescriptions under false identities. He also confessed to forging prescriptions and providing drugs to others in exchange for money.
The case was prosecuted by Senior Deputy Attorney General Thomas R. Grace and Senior Deputy Attorney General Edward Song.
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