Alleged pill mill doctors indicted for dispensing painkillers

opioids
Photo credit Lacy Atkins/The Tennessean
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — More than a dozen doctors and medical professionals in the Philadelphia region are facing charges of running "pill mills" and allegedly dispensing opioid painkillers to people without legitimate medical needs. 

U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain alleges the 14 people charged — including doctors and physician assistants — unlawfully prescribed oxycodone and routinely ignored warning signs that patients were abusing or selling their prescription painkillers.

"A whopping number of illegal prescriptions," added McSwain, "at least 3,678 alleged illegal prescriptions that were medically unnecessary."

The doctors worked at Advanced Urgent Care, a medical business with office locations on City Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard in Philadelphia, Bethlehem Pike in Montgomeryville, and Easton Road in Willow Grove.

In a separate indictment, a Philadelphia doctor with a suspended medical license allegedly used his colleague as a go-between to get prescription drugs, so he could exchange them for sexual favors from a patient.