Pharmacist uses generic meds scheme to defraud government out of $1.3 million, feds say
A Virginia pharmacy owner will serve jail time for a generic medication scheme that caused $1.3 million in losses to the government, federal officials said.
Randy Yost, 72, who owns Randy’s Gateway Drug in Richlands, pleaded guilty in May to health care fraud, conspiracy to commit health care fraud and distributing oxycodone, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia said in a Jan. 7 news release.
Now, he’s sentenced to 18 months in prison with three years of supervised release and ordered to pay slightly over $1.3 million in restitution, according to prosecutors.
“Mr. Yost has otherwise lived an exemplary and unblemished life,” Thomas Scott, Yost’s attorney, told McClatchy News in a Jan. 8 email. “He’s glad to put this unfortunate chapter behind him.”
Between April 2016 and June 2023, Yost fraudulently billed government health care benefit programs for brand-name medications while dispensing cheaper, generic drugs, according to court documents.
He also billed the programs for medication that was never provided and for prescriptions that were distributed to patients and later returned to the pharmacy, court records show.
According to prosecutors, Yost illegally dispensed oxycodone to a person without a valid prescription between May 2019 and July 2020.
As of Jan. 8, Randy’s Gateway Drug store remains open, according to the pharmacy’s Facebook page.
McClatchy News reached out to the pharmacy for comment Jan. 8 but did not immediately receive a response.
Richlands is in southwestern Virginia, about a 170-mile drive northeast from Knoxville, Tennessee.
This story was originally published January 8, 2025 at 3:12 PM with the headline "Pharmacist uses generic meds scheme to defraud government out of $1.3 million, feds say."
