Walgreens pharmacy tech in California accused of impersonating a pharmacist and PIC for ~12 years

[CetiAlphaFive]

What does that have to do with anything? I remember you implying that I was sexist because I used "she" in reference to a nurse, even though I'm a female (and I guarantee nurses have more political power, both in the workplace and in real life, than a lowly pharmacist like me has)
I will say, I didn't see anything racist in your original statement, but then I didn't see anything sexist in the statement you called me out for, so maybe I'm not the best judge.

Please don't whitesplain sexism to me

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[owlegrad]

We seem to be getting off topic here but I think we can all agree that mentioning race or gender is racist and sexist.

 

[JustFillIt]

We seem to be getting off topic here but I think we can all agree that mentioning race or gender is racist and sexist.

Owle... Did you just mansplain to us?

 

[BenJammin]

Isn't mansplain a sexist term? How do you assume their gender like that?

 

[BidingMyTime]

Please don't whitesplain sexism to me

Please don't assume my race/ethnicity.

 

[wucool33]

What does that have to do with anything? I remember you implying that I was sexist because I used "she" in reference to a nurse, even though I'm a female (and I guarantee nurses have more political power, both in the workplace and in real life, than a lowly pharmacist like me has)

I will say, I didn't see anything racist in your original statement, but then I didn't see anything sexist in the statement you called me out for, so maybe I'm not the best judge.

Well, put a stick up my ass and call me a popsicle! I have always assumed you were a dude!

 

[BidingMyTime]

Well, put a stick up my ass and call me a popsicle! I have always assumed you were a dude!

You must not have seen my breastfeeding posts! Haha, I always think of people as looking like their profile pictures, so I'm not surprised if everyone thinks I look like a zonked out guy.

 

[projektreverb]

Are we sti

You must not have seen my breastfeeding posts! Haha, I always think of people as looking like their profile pictures, so I'm not surprised if everyone thinks I look like a zonked out guy.

 

[JustFillIt]

Well, put a stick up my ass and call me a popsicle! I have always assumed you were a dude!

Phew! I thought I was the only one who did that. Totally normal...

 

[WVUPharm2007]

Walgreens To Pay $7.5 Million To Settle Fake Pharmacist Case

Walgreens will pay $7.5 million to settle with California authorities after an employee was criminally charged with impersonating a pharmacist and illegally filling more than 745,000 prescriptions in the San Francisco Bay Area.

sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com

$7.5 million!

 

[Oreo Milk Shake]

Walgreens To Pay $7.5 Million To Settle Fake Pharmacist Case

Walgreens will pay $7.5 million to settle with California authorities after an employee was criminally charged with impersonating a pharmacist and illegally filling more than 745,000 prescriptions in the San Francisco Bay Area.

sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com

$7.5 million!

7.5 million?!?! WTF what a sshame - it should be way more than that!!! People's lives were at risk ---- What a joke!

 

[mentos]

Did they find any errors that were made? If not, shows how easy the job is.

 

[projektreverb]

Did they find any errors that were made? If not, shows how easy the job is.

Its a lot of scripts to go back thru

 

[JustFillIt]

The tech pled not guilty. How does that work?

 

[mentos]

Its a lot of scripts to go back thru

They would have been reported years ago while she worked.

 

[owlegrad]

The tech pled not guilty. How does that work?

What do you mean? You don’t need to be innocent to plead not guilty. It’s called lying.

 

[Pharmacy is a Scam]

What do you mean? You don’t need to be innocent to plead not guilty. It’s called lying.

I think he means that in light of these remarks (quoted from OP):

• Accused pharmacy tech respondent said the following: "Me and my son would be very grateful if you could just forget about this," "I will pay whatever fine, "not coming back to work as a pharmacist"

That is practically a confession so what is there to contest?

 

[JustFillIt]

What do you mean? You don’t need to be innocent to plead not guilty. It’s called lying.

Yea it’s a good point - I guess I was sarcastically stating that the plea was outrageous.

Under what grounds could you even remotely build a legal defense saying that you were innocent. She was caught red handed and the trail of evidence is overwhelming.

Saying she was red handed is a huge understatement. Law fascinates me sometimes - I would be super curious to know what the legal defense strategy is. I’m sure it has something to do with blaming Walgreens.

 

[owlegrad]

Yea it’s a good point - I guess I was sarcastically stating that the plea was outrageous.

Under what grounds could you even remotely build a legal defense saying that you were innocent. She was caught red handed and the trail of evidence is overwhelming.

Saying she was red handed is a huge understatement. Law fascinates me sometimes - I would be super curious to know what the legal defense strategy is. I’m sure it has something to do with blaming Walgreens.

I am curious about that as well. Maybe she just plans on crying for the jury and hoping they are sympathetic?

 

[CetiAlphaFive]

I am curious about that as well. Maybe she just plans on crying for the jury and hoping they are sympathetic?

She sounds like any other tech that doesn't understand hierarchy and power systems.

 

[confettiflyer]

Are those the official charges or just the statues that you believe apply? I would be shocked if she wasn't charged with something federal along the lines of selling controlled substances without a license. How do you dispense thousands of controlled medications illegally and only get away with general impersonation and theft? No way the DEA doesn't get involved... I'm guessing civilly they'll have no problem justifying taking back all her wages with interest.

These charges were copied from the online portal. I wouldn’t be surprised about federal charges, either.


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[mentos]

She probably spent all her money or shipped it overseas long ago. How will they take the money back if her accounts are empty?

 

[confettiflyer]

She probably spent all her money or shipped it overseas long ago. How will they take the money back if her accounts are empty?

High probability they will just attach liens onto real property or garnish wages (if she’ll even have any later on)


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[mentos]

The tech pled not guilty. How does that work?

It worked for OJ.

 

[PharmtoCS]

If found guilty she would be on the hook for criminal restitution which has a near 0% chance of being discharged.

Probably a lot more than the fine of hundreds or thousands she was hoping all that was she had to pay back.

 

[PikminOC]

Impersonation of a cop is a crime. Not a crime to impersonate a physician

 

[Sine Cura]

You sure about that? Man facing prison time for allegedly pretending to be a doctor, even treating a patient in California

 

[confettiflyer]

So not really an update, but the next pre trial hearing is 2/27/2020 @ 0915. It’s at the East County Hall of Justice (5151 Gleason Dr. Dublin, CA).

Probably won’t go to that, but I’ll try to sneak over when the actual trial starts.

SDN meetup, anyone? lol


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[CetiAlphaFive]

You sure about that? Man facing prison time for allegedly pretending to be a doctor, even treating a patient in California

Tiki loves to just editorialize into the wind.
Sometimes he's right

 

[Amphetamine Salts]

this is dumb. how does someone get away with impersonating a pharmacist for 12 yrs. and they don't understand that they are essentially stealing money? not going to school yet getting paid like a pharmD? what the **** was she doing when giving out flu shots and ****. ridiculous

 

[Pharmacy is a Scam]

this is dumb. how does someone get away with impersonating a pharmacist for 12 yrs. and they don't understand that they are essentially stealing money? not going to school yet getting paid like a pharmD? what the **** was she doing when giving out flu shots and ****. ridiculous

Because 95% of what a retail pharmacist does can be done by a lay person with no clinical background bro. If she tried pulling this stunt as say, a critical care pharmacist at a hospital then she's gonna get figured out real quick on day 1 of rounds.

 

[owlegrad]

this is dumb. how does someone get away with impersonating a pharmacist for 12 yrs. and they don't understand that they are essentially stealing money? not going to school yet getting paid like a pharmD? what the **** was she doing when giving out flu shots and ****. ridiculous

If I recall the details of the story correctly she did go to pharmacy school. She either dropped out or failed to get a license, I don’t recall the specifics.
Or maybe she was just a tech first? I am not totally sure.

 

[mentos]

this is dumb. how does someone get away with impersonating a pharmacist for 12 yrs. and they don't understand that they are essentially stealing money? not going to school yet getting paid like a pharmD? what the **** was she doing when giving out flu shots and ****. ridiculous

Let's be honest, anyone can verify scripts. The computer does all the work for you. You get 15 seconds per script at Walgreens. No one is doing anything clinical in that amount of time.

Counseling can be BS'd. Many techs have enough basic pharmacy knowledge to counsel. "Shake well, refrigerate, drink plenty of water, finish the course even if you feel better". Most patients don't even listen they just want their meds so they can go home.

 

[confettiflyer]

Because 95% of what a retail pharmacist does can be done by a lay person with no clinical background bro. If she tried pulling this stunt as say, a critical care pharmacist at a hospital then she's gonna get figured out real quick on day 1 of rounds.

Dopamine and lidocaine drips for everyone!!


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[VictorOfHungerGames]

Because 95% of what a retail pharmacist does can be done by a lay person with no clinical background bro. If she tried pulling this stunt as say, a critical care pharmacist at a hospital then she's gonna get figured out real quick on day 1 of rounds.

Well.. even at an independent or a compounding pharmacy, she wouldn't have lasted very long. This was possible because it was at Wag. She probably could've lasted longer at CVS lol

 

[Pharmacy is a Scam]

Well.. even at an independent or a compounding pharmacy, she wouldn't have lasted very long. This was possible because it was at Wag. She probably could've lasted longer at CVS lol

Seeing as how the quality of new grads have been dropping year over year, I am sure that in today's job market you could hire someone directly off the street vs a new grad and your customers won't be able to tell who's who.

 

[confettiflyer]

Face it...plenty of jobs which have license requirements can be faked 80% of the time. Learn the jargon, learn what buttons to press, and learn just enough to not outright injure/kill anyone. Modern manufacturing process makes it easy (like it doesn’t make sense to take 38.5 tablets of one thing for a single dose)*

It’s not rocket science to do weight based dosing or memorizing OM amox dosing in peds is like 90 mg/kg/day. Likewise, I can probably handle air traffic control at a rural airport just from having listened to ATC for a long time. I mean, that’s a terrible idea, and I’m sure a few planes will circle while I figure stuff out, but it doesn’t take a genius to look at an empty runway and say “Citation Sierra Delta November clear to land runway 1R” into a headset.

It’s when epic SHTF scenarios come around where paying $200k/yr for a pharmacist is a bargain compared to the $MM liability your org now faces.


*specific example picked because, famously, a UCSF peds resident ordered, pharmacist verified, and RN gave this very Bactrim order to a real patient. All three are legitimately licensed practitioners.

How Technology Led a Hospital To Give a Patient 38 Times His Dosage | Backchannel

When Pablo Garcia was admitted, he felt fine. Then the hospital made him very sick. Blame high-tech medicine.

www.wired.com

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[owlegrad]

Confetti, with respect, will you get your level headed argument out of this sensationalist thread? Please and thank you.

 

[Wickett]

I know someone that floated at her store before she got caught. My friend never worked directly with her, but she said she had all sorts of district awards on the wall and was considered one of the better stores in her area. Crazy stuff.

 

[VictorOfHungerGames]

I know someone that floated at her store before she got caught. My friend never worked directly with her, but she said she had all sorts of district awards on the wall and was considered one of the better stores in her area. Crazy stuff.

This goes to show you that running a good chain does not require you to be a good pharmacist lol just meet their damn metrics.

 

[RX CARE]

Does California not require pharmacists to provide their employer relationships along with their registration? This would have been sorted out in a flash during the hiring process. 12 years is quite a long time for this person to have fallen through the cracks. In Texas you have to provide your current employer and are required to update it within 10 days of switching jobs. Surely in this case, the person at Walgreens in charge of verifying licenses, especially during renewals would have figured out why this person wasn't listing Walgreens as their official employer, for several renewal cycles.

 

[confettiflyer]

Does California not require pharmacists to provide their employer relationships along with their registration? This would have been sorted out in a flash during the hiring process. 12 years is quite a long time for this person to have fallen through the cracks. In Texas you have to provide your current employer and are required to update it within 10 days of switching jobs. Surely in this case, the person at Walgreens in charge of verifying licenses, especially during renewals would have figured out why this person wasn't listing Walgreens as their official employer, for several renewal cycles.

I don’t wanna be racist, but it’s not gonna be hard to find a “Kim Le” that works at a Walgreens in Southern California.

But California doesn’t require it, don’t give them any new ideas, we have enough administrative burden to deal with in this state.

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[mentos]

Does California not require pharmacists to provide their employer relationships along with their registration? This would have been sorted out in a flash during the hiring process. 12 years is quite a long time for this person to have fallen through the cracks. In Texas you have to provide your current employer and are required to update it within 10 days of switching jobs. Surely in this case, the person at Walgreens in charge of verifying licenses, especially during renewals would have figured out why this person wasn't listing Walgreens as their official employer, for several renewal cycles.

They probably did her license lookup in a few seconds. Name and license number match, good to go. Just like how they want their pharmacists to verify prescriptions.

 

[RX CARE]

I don’t wanna be racist, but it’s not gonna be hard to find a “Kim Le” that works at a Walgreens in Southern California.

But California doesn’t require it, don’t give them any new ideas, we have enough administrative burden to deal with in this state.

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Yea, I'm really surprised CA doesn't have it. From my understanding that the real person works somewhere else, this would definitely not have happened. Employers take it seriously and continuously monitor to ensure that their registration with the board also has every single person working at that pharmacy listed as well. If any one person is missing, you get a call from legal urging the person to login and update it ASAP. They don't play around. It would have been double hard to also get the real person's login credentials to the board website to do this.
That requirement alone would have created a conflict and she would have been easily made out.

 

[confettiflyer]

Yea, I'm really surprised CA doesn't have it. From my understanding that the real person works somewhere else, this would definitely not have happened. Employers take it seriously and continuously monitor to ensure that their registration with the board also has every single person working at that pharmacy listed as well. If any one person is missing, you get a call from legal urging the person to login and update it ASAP. They don't play around. It would have been double hard to also get the real person's login credentials to the board website to do this.
That requirement alone would have created a conflict and she would have been easily made out.

Such a system would have caught this, yes...but it begs the question, how widespread is this problem? Does a government agency need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to implement a positive credential check with every Rph needing a credential to log in and update their employer? Seeing how CURES is going and how much most people don’t care (and how many times I’ve had to request my password), it would be a a giant money sink that would get put right into our registration fees.

The threat of multimillion dollar fines should be incentive enough for the private sector to firm up their processes. The defendant here is at fault, but Wags definitely owns this one from a $$$ standpoint.


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[Sine Cura]

Would it really cost that much? Many state boards allow you to renew licenses online and setting up online accounts is a part of that process. California is one of the few where you still have to do things by snail mail or show up at the board in person (you can do that if you live in the Sacramento area. Less feasible if you live further out)

 

[owlegrad]

Such a system would have caught this, yes...but it begs the question, how widespread is this problem? Does a government agency need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to implement a positive credential check with every Rph needing a credential to log in and update their employer? Seeing how CURES is going and how much most people don’t care (and how many times I’ve had to request my password), it would be a a giant money sink that would get put right into our registration fees.

The threat of multimillion dollar fines should be incentive enough for the private sector to firm up their processes. The defendant here is at fault, but Wags definitely owns this one from a $$$ standpoint.


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What could Walgreens have done differently to prevent this?

 

[Sine Cura]

Require original license to be displayed in the pharmacy. Require pharmacist to present the original renewal letter (a fraud would not have access to that)

Most working pharmacists will renew their licenses anyway so an authentication system would not catch a fraud trying to pass off someone else's active license as their own.

Of course you could forge a license..

 

[projektreverb]

Require original license to be displayed in the pharmacy. Require pharmacist to present the original renewal letter (a fraud would not have access to that)

Most working pharmacists will renew their licenses anyway so an authentication system would not catch a fraud trying to pass off someone else's active license as their own.

Of course you could forge a license..

I’m surprised no one required her license to be displayed anywhere.

 

[Wickett]

Such a system would have caught this, yes...but it begs the question, how widespread is this problem? Does a government agency need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to implement a positive credential check with every Rph needing a credential to log in and update their employer? Seeing how CURES is going and how much most people don’t care (and how many times I’ve had to request my password), it would be a a giant money sink that would get put right into our registration fees.

The threat of multimillion dollar fines should be incentive enough for the private sector to firm up their processes. The defendant here is at fault, but Wags definitely owns this one from a $$$ standpoint.


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Would it really be that expensive to maintain a database on a state site and expect pharmacists to keep their info up to date? In Texas, when we renew our license we pay a renewal fee and have a new wall hang and pocket license sent to us in the mail. We have to display our wall license where we primarily work and keep our pocket license on us in our wallets. If our employment changes, we update it on the board's site and physically take our license to our new job. Our state site shows the exact address where we list our primary employment and is publically accessible.

State board inspectors look at the licenses online vs what's displayed and if something doesnt match, we have to fix it and notify the board with proof everything is accurate. Corporate periodically checks that we are up to date online and ask for copies of all our licenses to verify everything matches. It's not that hard or time consuming.

If California did this, the first state inspection or corporate on boarding would show that her license lists her primary employment outside of Walgreens/that clearly something isnt adding up.

Just expecting companies to self police on stuff like this is how you get a decade plus of fraud falling through the cracks. How California has such an antiquated system despite being the tech capital of the world boggles my mind.