Nearly 60 Doctors,
Other Medical Workers Charged In Federal Opioid Sting
Assistant Attorney General Brian
Benczkowski said Wednesday that if doctors or pharmacists behave like drug
dealers, the Justice Department would prosecute them accordingly.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Federal prosecutors are charging 60 doctors, pharmacists,
medical professionals and others in connection with alleged opioid pushing and
health care fraud, the Justice Department said Wednesday.
The charges came less than four months after the Justice Department
dispatched experienced fraud prosecutors across hard-hit regions in Appalachia.
The cases involve more than 350,000 prescriptions for controlled
substances and more than 32 million pills — the equivalent of a dose of opioids
for "every man, woman and child," across Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee,
Alabama and West Virginia, said Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski.
"You can rest assured, when
medical professionals behave like drug dealers, the Department of Justice is
going to treat them like drug dealers," added Benczkowski, who runs the
DOJ's criminal division.
Those
charged include 31 doctors, seven pharmacists, eight nurse practitioners and
seven other licensed medical professionals, the Justice Department said.
The idea for the department's Appalachian Regional Prescription
Opioid Strike Force was formed last autumn to assist areas suffering from high
numbers of opioid overdoses and deaths.
Justice Department leaders ultimately approved sending 14 health
care fraud prosecutors to several different federal districts to help build
cases. They started in January, sifting through data analysis to find the
biggest outliers.
Then, the prosecutors used traditional law enforcement methods,
including search warrants, confidential informants and surveillance, officials
say.
In some examples, authorities pointed to "inordinately
large quantities, 100 prescriptions per day," or other suspicious facts —
such as prescriptions with no evidence of a patient having been physically
examined.
In another episode, one doctor had a pharmacy operating outside
his own waiting room.
"This is extreme outlier behavior," Benczkowski said.
"We're targeting the worst of the worst doctors in these districts."
Authorities said they are working
with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Health
and Human Services and local public health officials so that patients who
arrive at the doors of medical offices that have been shuttered will receive
information and other options for medical treatment.
Authorities say one goal was simply to cut off the flow of too
many opioids into areas where addiction already has taken a heavy toll.
"In my
view, if we can save one life, this will have been worth it," Benczkowski
said. "We're not going to just come out and try to arrest our way out of
the problem."
The CDC has reported that 130 Americans die every day of an opioid-related overdose, and federal law enforcement officials have been tasked with trying to stanch the flow of some of those drugs.
The CDC has reported that 130 Americans die every day of an opioid-related overdose, and federal law enforcement officials have been tasked with trying to stanch the flow of some of those drugs.
"The opioid epidemic is the
deadliest drug crisis in American history, and Appalachia has suffered the
consequences more than perhaps any other region," Attorney General William
Barr said. "But the Department of Justice is doing its part to help end
this crisis."
The efforts will continue, officials say — the strike force is expected to expand into a new area, the Western District of Virginia, starting this week.
The efforts will continue, officials say — the strike force is expected to expand into a new area, the Western District of Virginia, starting this week.
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