Justice Department Goes After Doctors Profiting From Prescribing Painkillers

by April Kuhlman: A "pill mill" is a clinic where doctors write unnecessary prescriptions for painkillers in exchange for money or other incentives. This practice creates addicts who turn to more dangerous drugs when their prescriptions run out.

As Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced last Friday, the Justice Department is increasingly targeting doctors who profit from opioid prescriptions.

"[Patients] get addicted, and then they move to heroin and fentanyl and die. Our goal is flat out to bring down the number of deaths," said Sessions.

"I've been to 30, 40 United States Attorney offices all over America, and they all have cases on physicians, some on pharmacies, some hospitals have poor control measures, and pills are out there."

The Details
One pill pusher, a Tennessee chiropractor named Matthew Anderson, was busted when a concerned employee filed a civil lawsuit under the False Claims Act.

Anderson had been billing TennCare and Medicare for office visits that should not have been reimbursable.

"In this case, a concerned whistleblower brought a civil suit which ultimately held those responsible for the illicit prescription of opioids and at the same time cheating the taxpayers by causing federal healthcare programs to pay for such highly addictive drugs," said Tennessee attorney David Cochran.

Anderson was fined $1.45 million and banned from billing federal healthcare programs for the next five years. All four of his clinics were shut down.

"If we're going to end this unprecedented drug crisis, which is claiming the lives of 64,000 Americans each year, doctors must stop over-prescribing opioids and law enforcement must aggressively pursue those medical professionals who act in their own financial interests, at the expense of their patients' best interests," said Sessions.

Last month during a speech in Kentucky, Sessions discussed an analytical program that searches for potential opioid-related healthcare fraud by doctors and other medical care providers.

Meanwhile the DOJ is also educating mailmen on how to detect painkillers sent via mail. One source, a Thailand-based website called "Alpha Bay," has already been detected and eliminated.

The individual involved in the case killed himself before the FBI could get to him.
----------------
April Kuhlman writes at The Daily Grind

---

Tags: Justice Department, Goes After Doctors, Profiting, Prescribing Painkillers, April Kuhlman, The Daily Grind To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!