The owner of a Vernon business selling post-mastectomy products pleaded guilty to health-care fraud on October 6, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Connecticut.
Jacqueline Pelphrey, 50, now of Freedom, Pennsylvania and formerly of Manchester, operated Women’s Health Resources Inc., doing business as Essentials for the Special Woman in Vernon. Prosecutors said the business submitted claims for custom breast prostheses that clients had not ordered, bought or received.
The federal account places the scheme’s beginning no later than August 2018. As part of her plea, Pelphrey admitted causing $1,299,633.10 in losses to Medicaid and other health insurance plans.
She was released on a $10,000 bond pending sentencing, scheduled for December 29 in Bridgeport. The offense carries a maximum ten-year prison term; that is a statutory ceiling, not a sentence already imposed.
HHS’s inspector general and the FBI investigated. This report relies on the official prosecution announcement; no sentencing outcome has been established.