Baldwin woman pleads guilty to using fraud to obtain painkillers
A Baldwin woman pleaded guilty in federal court to obtaining a pain drug through health care fraud.
Prosecutors alleged that Heather Summerfield, 39, following back surgery in 2009, began to use Tramadol and became addicted.
She fraudulently obtained more than 60,000 Tramadol pills, prosecutors said.
Summerfield would allegedly pose as receptionists for her doctor and for doctors she found online to phone in unauthorized prescriptions. She used at least four doctors’ names and 11 fake patient names to get perscriptions, according to prosecutors.
She paid for some prescriptions with cash but her health care insurers paid a part of some bills.
She was indicted by a federal grand jury at Pittsburgh in April 2018. She is on home confinement but the court allowed her to attend a kindergarten graduation for her son earlier this month.
Summerfield is scheduled sentencing for Oct. 3.
The FBI conducted the investigation that led to the prosecution of Summerfield.
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