Former Amityville nurse Julie DeVuono has been ordered to pay a $544,000 civil penalty after state health officials concluded she falsified vaccination records for 162 children, a hit the agency is calling the largest vaccination-fraud sanction in its history. Regulators say the bogus entries went into the New York State Immunization Information System, showing routine childhood vaccines that kids never actually received.
According to News12, the civil fine sits on top of more than $1.2 million DeVuono had already agreed to forfeit in a criminal case. News12 reports that the scheme, which state officials say touched patients from Long Island, the Hudson Valley and New York City between November 2019 and January 2022, pulled in roughly $1.5 million in about three months by charging $85 to $220 for false entries in the state database.
State Findings And Administrative Action
The New York State Department of Health says its investigators uncovered phony records for standard pediatric vaccines including measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), polio, hepatitis B, diphtheria/tetanus/pertussis (DTaP/Tdap) and varicella, all uploaded into NYSIIS through DeVuono's clinic, Wild Child Pediatric Healthcare. In a 2024 press release, the department said it voided the pediatric immunization records tied to that practice and had flagged hundreds of suspicious entries, with state law allowing administrative penalties of up to $2,000 for every falsified vaccination entry, according to the New York State Department of Health. At that point, officials had invalidated records for roughly 135 children and warned that the number could climb as their review continued.
Criminal Plea, Forfeiture And Discipline
DeVuono pleaded guilty to forgery and money laundering in September 2023 and was sentenced in June 2024 under a deal that required her to surrender her professional licenses and give up the criminal proceeds, according to CBS New York. Disciplinary notices from the State Education Department show she turned in both her registered nurse and nurse practitioner licenses as part of the case, and court records and statements from prosecutors describe a probation term instead of a lengthy jail sentence, according to the New York State Education Department.
Impact On Schools And Families
The fallout reached well beyond one Long Island office. After the Department of Health wiped out the suspect records, the state sent subpoenas for vaccination files on hundreds of former patients, and schools began issuing exclusion notices for students whose immunization status was suddenly in question, the Associated Press reported. Officials say the state and local school systems have spent years chasing down and correcting bad data to keep school immunization requirements on solid footing.
Why Public Health Officials Say Enforcement Matters
New York law requires children in daycare and school to receive certain vaccines, and health officials argue that fake entries in the statewide registry undercut the system meant to stop outbreaks of measles, polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases. The Department of Health's guidance to schools on vaccination fraud instructs that paper-only records from providers caught falsifying entries should not be accepted. Instead, laboratory proof or other official documentation must back any claim of immunity, according to the New York State Department of Health.
What Comes Next
State officials say the new civil penalty is separate from the criminal forfeitures and is meant to send a message to anyone tempted to game the immunization system. The Department of Health described the $544,000 fine as the largest vaccination-fraud penalty it has ever imposed in its 125-year history, according to News12. Families caught up in the case must now show that their children are current on required vaccines or otherwise meet school rules, and the department is still urging schools and local health departments to report any suspected vaccination fraud.
