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Justice Department Files Nationwide Lawsuit Alleging Walgreens Knowingly Filled Millions of Prescriptions that Lacked a Legitimate Medical Purpose

posted 4 days ago
In a civil complaint filed yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the Justice Department alleges that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Walgreen Co. and various subsidiaries (collectively, Walgreens) dispensed millions of unlawful prescriptions in violation of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and then sought reimbursement for many of these prescriptions from various federal health care programs in violation the False Claims Act (FCA). Walgreens is one of the country’s largest pharmacy chains, with over 8,000 pharmacies across the United States. Read Press Release #Opioid #HealthcareFraud #CivilCase

AR: Multi-state pharmacy burglar gets 17 years in federal prison

posted 5 days ago
Keith Brown, a multi-convicted felon, will spend the next 209 months, or nearly 17 ½ years, in federal prison for his lead role in a criminal organization that was responsible for dozens of pharmacy burglaries and stolen controlled substances worth millions of dollars in Arkansas. A federal grand jury indicted Brown, along with 41 other defendants who were indicted in a superseding indictment on July 2, 2024, on November 8, 2023. He was charged in six counts related to the burglaries, including two conspiracy counts and four counts for pharmacy burglary. Brown was initially indicted on November 8, 2022, along with 17 co-conspirators. On September 4, 2024, Brown ...

Doctor Sentenced for $70M Medicare Fraud Scheme

posted 7 days ago
A Texas doctor was sentenced today to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay $26,622,522.82 in restitution for his role in a scheme to defraud Medicare by prescribing durable medical equipment and cancer genetic testing without seeing, speaking to, or otherwise treating patients. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, David M. Young M.D., 61, of Fredericksburg, signed thousands of medical records and prescriptions for orthotic braces and genetic tests that falsely represented that the braces and tests were medically necessary and that he diagnosed the beneficiaries, had a plan of care for them, and recommended that they receive certain ...

Oakton doctor pleads guilty to running pill mill

posted 7 days ago
An Oakton doctor pled guilty today to conspiracy to distribute oxycodone and amphetamines, maintaining drug premises, and false statements relating to health care matters. According to court documents, David Allingham, 64, was the owner of and sole medically licensed practitioner at Oakton Primacy Care Center (OPCC), an urgent care center. Between at least April 2019 and January 2024, Allingham wrote prescriptions for opioids and amphetamines for numerous patients without properly assessing the individual needs of those patients, which was outside the usual course of professional practice and regulations and without legitimate medical purpose. During that ...

Violent attacks on West Virginia teachers are most frequently in kindergarten classrooms

posted 9 days ago
The state schools superintendent said the young kids’ violent behavior is a result of the ongoing drug epidemic The highest rate of battery on a school employee from a child is occurring in West Virginia’s kindergarten classrooms — an alarming statistic that the state schools superintendent said is tied to the state’s multigenerational drug epidemic. State Superintendent of Schools Michele Blatt told lawmakers that 19% of battery cases were in kindergarten classes, and the number drastically dropped off as children moved up in grade levels. Read Article #NeonatalAbstinenceSyndrome(NAS) #WestVirginia

Pharmacy Owner Sentenced to Imprisonment for Health Care Fraud

posted 12 days ago
Randy Yost Caused $1.3 Million Loss to U.S. Government Through Fraud The owner of Randy’s Gateway Drug in Cedar Bluff, Virginia, was sentenced recently to 18 months in prison on federal healthcare fraud charges after pleading guilty in May for conduct that caused $1.3 million in losses to the federal government. Read Press Release #HealthcareFraud #Virginia

Bluesight Expands Compliance Capabilities and Strengthens Platform through Acquisition of Protenus

posted 12 days ago
Bluesight, the leading provider of inventory management, procurement, and compliance solutions for health systems and hospital pharmacies, today announced the acquisition of Protenus, provider of the leading healthcare compliance analytics platform. This strategic acquisition will further strengthen Bluesight’s drug diversion platform and add critical patient privacy monitoring capabilities to better protect healthcare organizations and the communities they serve. Read Article #NewTechnology

Hudson Valley Cocaine and Fentanyl Trafficking Network Dismantled

posted 13 days ago
A massive Hudson Valley drug trafficking ring has been dismantled, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced on Thursday. Seven members of the narcotics trafficking network, which illegally sold cocaine and counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl in Dutchess, Orange, Ulster, and Westchester counties, were arrested and indicted. Read Article #DrugTraffickingOrganization(DTO) #NewYork

Former Corrections Officer Pleads Guilty To Accepting Bribes In Exchange For Smuggling Narcotics Into Rikers Island

posted 14 days ago
Edward Y. Kim, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that GHISLAINE BARRIENTOS, a former corrections officer, pled guilty today to bribery in connection with her participation in a scheme to accept bribes in exchange for smuggling narcotics into Rikers Island. BARRIENTOS pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Gregory H. Woods and is scheduled to be sentenced on April 16, 2025. Read Press Release #NewYork

New AI-powered wearable cameras help detect medication errors

posted 14 days ago
Discover how AI-powered wearable cameras detect and prevent medication errors in real-time, enhancing patient safety and reducing hospital costs. Read Article #NewTechnology

Lawyer visiting inmate accused of having something odd on paperwork, Florida cops say

posted 14 days ago
The papers were laced with the Schedule 1 controlled substance ADB-PINACA, “also known as synthetic marijuana, ‘K2,’ or ‘Paper Dope Read Article #Florida #EmerginingDrugTrend

Houston Methodist doctor suspended after testing positive for cocaine

posted 14 days ago
A doctor at Houston Methodist was suspended after the Texas Medical Board determined that he was performing surgeries while under the influence of drugs. Read Article #Texas #LicenseSuspension #Impaired

Washington state sees spike in new chemicals in street drugs, fentanyl

posted 14 days ago
The landscape of street drugs looked a lot different when University of Washington research professor Caleb Banta-Green began his career in drug epidemiology more than 20 years ago. There were just seven illicit drugs he had to keep track of: cannabis, meth, cocaine, heroin, PCP, LSD and MDMA. Read Article #PacificNorthwest #EmerginingDrugTrend

Medical Marijuana Employees See New Accommodations In Florida Court Ruling

posted 15 days ago
A Hillsborough County, Florida judge issued a ruling that could have significant impacts on employers. This ruling concerned medical marijuana and could have considerable implications involving an employee’s request for reasonable accommodation when using medical marijuana. The judge’s rule favored the paramedic who allegedly faced unlawful discrimination. According to the case, the discrimination concerned his off-duty use of medical marijuana. In this case, the plaintiff filed a lawsuit against Hillsborough County after taking a forced administrative leave in 2019. This leave took place because a random drug test resulted positive for cannabis use. Read ...

Officer injured, 2 in custody for reportedly stealing narcotics from Walgreens in Aurora

posted 15 days ago
An Aurora Walgreens was robbed Tuesday night and an officer was injured, but police say two suspects from the robbery are in custody thanks to a GPS tracking device. Read Article #Colorado #PharmacyBurglary/Robbery

Yakima County coroner faces charges over using drugs he stole from corpses

posted 16 days ago
Yakima County Coroner Jim Curtice is facing criminal charges in response to police allegations that he stole and used illicit drugs from dead bodies at work, and then lied about it. Read Article #Arizona #Impaired #ProviderArrest(s)

Does Your Customer’s Car Have a Drug Problem?

posted 20 days ago
Theft-recovery vehicles often take a dark and dangerous journey. According to a September 2023 New York Post report, when a family in Washington state got back their stolen 2002 Ford F150 pickup, it appeared to be in pristine condition. So the owner, a father of a five- and 10-year-old, took a drive with his kids. Shortly after, the stomach aches and headaches started. Read More #SafetyAlerts

Illicit Medetomidine Use with Fentanyl

posted 21 days ago
Medetomidine is a non-opioid veterinary anesthetic drug and a synthetic alpha-2-adrenoceptor agonist that is not approved for human use. Increasingly, it’s being used with illicitly manufactured fentanyl, xylazine (another, similar, non-opioid, animal sedative), heroin, and other street drugs in several parts of the U.S.1 Because it’s an emerging adulterant, the Centers for Disease Control is closely monitoring it. Read Article #EmerginingDrugTrend #Medetomidine

Former nurse at Broad River Correctional accused of stealing pills from work

posted 21 days ago
A former nurse at a state prison in Columbia was charged after being accused of stealing drugs. The South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) said 61-year-old Janet Marie Hawkins, who worked at Broad River Correctional Institute, was charged with theft of a controlled substance. Read Article #SouthCarolina #Carolinas #NurseDiversion

Martinsville Doctor Convicted on 467 Federal Counts of Drug Distribution

posted 22 days ago
Dr. Joel Smithers Illegally Prescribed Schedule II Narcotics Joel Smithers, a Martinsville-based doctor, was found guilty of multiple drug charges at the conclusion of a three-week jury trial last week in U.S. District Court in Abingdon, Acting United States Attorney Zachary T Lee announced. The jury convicted Smithers, 42, after sixteen hours of deliberation, on one count of maintaining a place for the purpose of illegally distributing controlled substances and 466 counts of illegally prescribing Schedule II controlled substances. Press Release #Virginia #ProviderArrest(s)