A physician in Southfield, Mich., was sentenced to six years in prison for illegally distributing opioids, the Justice Department said in a Sept. 24 news release.
What happened?
- From November 2016 to July 2018, Charise Valentine, MD, issued more than 3,000 prescriptions for over 200,000 pills to people with no legitimate medical need. She was one of two physicians at Orthopedic Medical Building, a sham, cash-only clinic operating out of a warehouse in Oak Park, Mich., issuing illegal opioid prescriptions.
- Her co-defendant, Michele Ritter, MD, also wrote thousands of unlawful prescriptions.
- Orthopedic Medical Building charged $200 to $500 per prescription to patients who were recruited by paid marketers. If no opioids were given, patients paid nothing. The clinic also sold fraudulent medical records to bolster fake treatment histories.
- Dr. Valentine collected about 50% of the clinic’s proceeds, totaling more than $500,000 in cash over 19 months. She was paid only when she wrote opioid prescriptions, receiving envelopes with thousands of dollars after each day she worked.
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