(File Photo of a Gavel)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Hartford, CT) A woman from Freedom pleaded guilty yesterday to an almost $1.3 million health care fraud scheme.

According to the Department of Justice, fifty-year-old Jacqueline Pelphrey, waived her right to be indicted and pleaded guilty in federal court in Hartford, Connecticut.

Prosecutors state that Pelphrey, a woman formerly of Manchester, Connecticut, defrauded Medicaid and other health insurance plans of $1.29 million while she owned and operated Women’s Health Resources Inc.

The Department of Justice confirms that this business sold post-mastectomy items, which included breast prostheses, and submitted some claims to health care benefit programs for them.

Pelphrey allegedly began submitting claims for items that clients never ordered or received around August of 2018.

Pelphrey could face up to 10 years in jail for the health care fraud charge.

She is now out on a $10,000 bond pending her sentencing, which is scheduled for December 29th in Bridgeport, Connecticut.