Alabama Doctors Charged In Opioid Prescription Scandal

CINCINNATI, OH - Doctors and medical professionals in five states were charged Wednesday with illegally prescribing pain medication to patients. Those charged included doctors, pharmacists and nurse practitioners, and in some instances, the drugs were traded for sexual favors.

The charges involve more than 350,000 illegal prescriptions written in Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Alabama and West Virginia, according to a Washington Post report. The indictment includes 31 doctors, seven pharmacists, eight nurse practitioners and seven other licensed medical professionals. In one instance, a dentist has been charged with unnecessarily pulling teeth from patients to justify giving them opioids.

Alabama medical professionals indicted include Dr. Elizabeth Korcz, 46, and Matthew Korcz, 45, and Austin Haskew from the former Hoover Alt MD on South Shades Crest Road; Madison County health care providers Dr. John Cimino, Dr. Marshall Plotka and Dr. Celia Lloyd-Turney; Katherine Barnett, a marketer for Medical Sports Performance LLC; and Christopher Wray, an individual charged with forging prescriptions.

The charges include unlawful distribution or dispensing of controlled substances by a medical professional and health-care fraud. Each count carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence, and many of the defendants face multiple counts. At least one doctor is charged in connection with a death caused by the opioids, officials said.

"That is the equivalent of one opioid dose for every man, woman and child in the five states in the region that we’ve been targeting," Brian Benczkowski, an assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s criminal division, said in an interview. "If these medical professionals behave like drug dealers, you can rest assured that the Justice Department is going to treat them like drug dealers."

In June of 2018, a pill mill case was exposed that included former Alabama legislator Ed Henry from Hartselle. Henry owned a chronic care management company called MyPractice24 from 2015 to 2017, when he also served at its CEO. Investigators have called the Atlanta Highway Family Practice medical clinic a "pill mill," alleging employees from clerical workers to physicians conspired to prescribe unnecessary controlled substances and over bill health insurance companies for services and medications.

Last year, Sen. Doug Jones co-sponsored a bill addressing the opioid crisis.

"Many communities in Alabama and across our country are struggling to combat the opioid epidemic, and alleviate the harm it has caused to families and to our economy," Jones said. "I'm proud of the comprehensive, bipartisan efforts led by my HELP Committee colleagues to confront this issue with the urgency that it deserves. I'm also grateful that they agreed to incorporate the bipartisan bill I introduced recently with my colleagues Senators Tim Kaine and Todd Young, which would integrate job training into addiction recovery programs. We have more work ahead, but this is a strong step in the right direction."