A Wilkes-Barre, Pa., woman faces two counts each of insurance fraud and obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresentation after claiming to be her sister-in-law and billing the woman’s health carrier for more than $3,700.

The alleged fraud went on for nearly a year because the woman, Jennifer Lynn Rittel, 37, has the same first initial as her sister-in-law, Jane Rittel, according to the Times-Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.)

Agents with the Northeast Pennsylvania Insurance Fraud Task Force allege that Jennifer Rittel submitted 12 prescriptions for suboxone to CVS Pharmacies from January 2009 to November 2009, and the pharmacy subsequently billed Jane Rittel’s insurer, Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania, after filling the orders. Suboxone is prescribed for the treatment of opioid dependence.

In early December 2009, Jane Rittel was asked by her physician why she was taking suboxone, prompting the woman to obtain a pharmacy printout from CVS detailing 12 prescriptions filled in her name at pharmacies in Wilkes-Barre and Kingson, Pa., the report said.

Agents discovered that Dr. Joseph Lentini, a family physician, writes prescriptions using the first letter of patients’ names and wrote Jennifer Rittel’s prescription as “J. Rittel,” further advising her not to fill the prescription under her sister-in-law’s name, according to a criminal complaint.

CVS told fraud investigators that customers picking up prescriptions do not have to show their insurance card each time they pick up refills or new prescriptions if their name is already present in their database. Jennifer Rittel is accused of signing Jane Rittel’s name when picking up the prescriptions at CVS after losing her own medical coverage and never being asked by CVS staff for proof of her health insurance, or correcting the error, the report stated.