A New Jersey woman was sentenced to three years in prison for selling fertility drugs that were funded by her health insurer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.

Heidi Benham, formerly of Newton, Mass., also was ordered in federal court to pay $518,335 in restitution to the insurance company, according to a GateHouse News Service report. She pleaded guilty in March 2009 to fraud and improperly dispensing prescription drug charges.

Between February 2001 and October 2005, Benham, who had been a patient seeking fertility treatments when the scheme started, defrauded her insurance company for $518,335 worth of the prescriptions, then sold them through classified advertisements she placed on the Internet, prosecutors said.

Through the scheme, she allegedly told specialty pharmacies she was calling from a doctor’s office to obtain a prescription or refill for herself, the article said. She earned about $160,000 from the sale of the drugs, sent to her home by the pharmacies and billed to Blue Cross, records show.