Pharmacist indicted in $2 million health care fraud scheme
Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney's Office, Texas, Southern. Published April 17, 2025; the action is dated April 15, 2025.
A pharmacist submitted or caused the submission of fraudulent claims to Medicaid for prescriptions that a doctor had never prescribed, using doctors' personal information without their consent.
McALLEN, Texas to A 48-year-old Edinburg resident has been taken into custody on charges of health care fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with a scheme to defraud the Texas Medicaid Program, announced U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei.
Cynthia Ann Herrera is set to make her initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Juan Alanis at 9 a.m. The indictment, returned April 15 and unsealed upon her arrest, alleges she submitted or caused the submission of fraudulent claims to Medicaid for prescriptions that a doctor had never prescribed.
Between 2018 and 2024, the claims resulted in more than $2 million in Medicaid payments, according to the charges. Herrera allegedly used the personal information of doctors without their consent to bill Medicaid for the prescriptions. Herrera is charged with six counts of health care fraud, each carrying a possible 10-year maximum sentence and up to a $250,000 fine.
She is also facing six counts of aggravated identity theft. If convicted, she faces a mandatory two years which must be served consecutively to any other sentence imposed. Department of Health and Human Services - Office of the Inspector General (OIG), FBI, Health and Human Services Commission - OIG, Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and Texas Department of Insurance conducted the investigation.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sarina S. DiPiazza and Theodore Parran III are prosecuting the case.
An indictment is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence. A defendant is presumed innocent unless convicted through due process of law.