A former Amityville nurse practitioner has been ordered to pay a record $544,000 civil penalty after New York health officials found she falsified vaccination records for 162 school-aged children.
The penalty against Julie DeVuono is the largest vaccination-fraud fine imposed during the New York State Department of Health’s 125-year history, exceeding a $300,000 penalty issued in 2023.
Following an administrative hearing, State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald sustained charges that DeVuono falsely reported administering at least one vaccination to 162 pediatric patients between November 2019 and January 2022.
The Department of Health said DeVuono submitted information to the New York State Immunization Information System for hundreds of standard childhood vaccinations that were never administered.
The affected children were primarily from Long Island and the Hudson Valley, although some lived in New York City and as far north as the Capital District.
State investigators found that DeVuono gave some families homeopathic pellets instead of required vaccines and then entered the children into the state registry as vaccinated. She reportedly charged $85 for each pellet.
The false records involved vaccinations for diseases including measles, mumps, rubella, polio, hepatitis B, chickenpox, meningitis, tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis.
Over the past two school years, the Department of Health deleted the false vaccination information submitted by DeVuono. Affected families were required to provide proof of immunization from another provider before their children could return to school.
The investigation followed DeVuono’s January 2022 arrest in a separate fraudulent COVID-19 vaccination card scheme.
According to Suffolk County prosecutors, DeVuono charged adult customers $220 in 2021 and $350 in 2022 for false COVID-19 vaccination cards and fraudulent entries in the state immunization database.
Prosecutors said she moved the proceeds through several accounts and used some of the money to pay off the mortgage on her Amityville home.
A separate investigation found that DeVuono also submitted fraudulent oxycodone prescriptions to Suffolk County pharmacies using the names of relatives and other people who were not her patients. Prosecutors said she obtained the controlled substances and kept them for herself.
DeVuono pleaded guilty in September 2023 to second-degree money laundering, second-degree forgery and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing. Her corporation, Kids-On-Call Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, P.C., also pleaded guilty to money laundering and forgery charges.
DeVuono and the corporation agreed to forfeit $1,252,540.63 in criminal proceeds. She also surrendered her nurse practitioner and registered professional nurse licenses, closed Wild Child Pediatric Healthcare and surrendered the corporation’s certificate of incorporation.
She was sentenced in June 2024 and is currently serving a five-year probationary sentence.
The new $544,000 civil penalty is in addition to the money forfeited through the criminal case.
New Yorkers can report suspected vaccination fraud by emailing STOPVAXFRAUD@health.ny.gov.
Photo: SCDA
