HARRISBURG, Pa. (WTAJ) — A Bradford County nurse practitioner was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty in March to prescribing medications without a collaborating doctor and false billing.

According to Attorney General Michelle Henry, Stefanie King, 46, of Ulster, Pa., will serve ten years of probation, with the first six months on home confinement with an electronic monitor, and pay nearly $450,000 restitution as an outcome of the sentencing.

According to the release, the investigation found that King falsely billed in excess of $300,000 to private insurers and an additional $100,000 to the Commonwealth. She also wrote over 3,750 prescriptions to patients while not meeting the requirement to prescribe under Pennsylvania law.

Some of the criminal conduct happened while King was engaging in an inappropriate relationship with a patient, according to Henry.

“The defendant abused her position of trust by engaging in conduct that served herself and violated a system meant to assist our most vulnerable residents,” AG Henry said. “My office is committed to holding accountable those who put patients at risk and compromise our health care programs.”

King entered into a sexual relationship with a patient beginning in November 2016 at her Athens practice and billed a private insurer for time they spent together not related to medical care, according to the release. King later entered into a second relationship with a different patient and continued to prescribe controlled substances to him, despite discontinuing medical care after the relationship began.

Under Pennsylvania law, nurse practitioners are required to enter into collaborative agreements with licensed physicians in order to perform medical diagnoses and prescribe controlled substances.

King pleaded guilty to one felony count of violating the Controlled Substance Act- Obstained by Subterfuge, one felony count of Medicaid fraud, one felony count of insurance fraud and one felony count of violating the Controlled Substance Act- Delivery by Practitioner.

She has agreed to not practice as a nurse during her sentencing and voluntarily surrender her license to practice as a Certified Registered Nurse Practitioner.

The case was prosecuted by Senior Deputy Attorney General Mark Bellavia and Senior Deputy Attorney General Christopher R. Sherwood.