Healthcare Professionals Across the Eastern US Face Drug Distribution Charges
Health care professionals across the eastern half of the United States, including doctors, a dentist, a nurse and medical clinic operators, have been charged with illegally distributing prescriptions for more than 5 million pain pills, federal authorities said Wednesday.
Fourteen defendants were accused of crimes including illegally obtaining painkillers for personal use, unnecessarily prescribing painkillers to obtain Medicare and Medicaid payments, and filling out prescriptions in the names of current and former hospice patients, the government said.
In one case, a Kentucky dentist was charged with illegally prescribing opioids to a patient three times in five days, with the patient dying of a morphine overdose from one prescription, according to the Justice Department. Other defendants lived or worked in Alabama, Florida, New Jersey, Ohio, West Virginia and Tennessee.
