San Antonio pharmaceutical rep sentenced in $8 million health care fraud scheme

SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) – A pharmaceutical sales representative from San Antonio will spend more than 2 years behind bars for her part in a national health care fraud and bribery scheme that netted her more than $1 million.

Forty-six-year-old Holly Blakely pleaded guilty last year to bribing health care providers and getting them to write phony prescriptions for compound pain medications. They used the names of people who were unaware that the prescriptions had been written for them.

Blakely received commissions from pharmacies based on the amount of money they received from private and government health care insurers for the fraudulent prescriptions. She, in turn, paid kickbacks to the medical professionals who wrote the prescriptions for unsuspecting insured patients.

Total losses because of her scheme are approximately $8.8 million.

Thursday, Federal Judge Fred Biery ordered Blakely to spend 30 months behind bars and pay $1.7 million in restitution. She’s also been instructed to surrender to the U.S. Marshals Service by June 15 to begin her prison term. Until then, she’s out on bond.