Doctor Indicted For Illegally Prescribing Fentanyl And Hydrocodone Based Drugs To Patients
ST. LOUIS - Scott Collier, Diversion Program Manager of the St. Louis Division, today announced that Phillip Dean, M.D., 62, of Warrenton, Missouri, was indicted on eight felony charges pertaining to illegally prescribing fentanyl, hydrocodone, and other controlled substances without a legitimate medical purpose, as well as making false statements pertaining to Medicare and Medicaid programs. Dean was indicted in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.
“Doctors who provide these powerful opioid based drugs without a legitimate medical purpose only compound the Opioid Epidemic in this county,” Mr. Collier said. “It is through the tireless work of our investigators and partnering agencies that we are able to identify individuals who abuse their power and compromise the trust placed in them by the public.”
Evidence obtained in this investigation detailed the multiple personal relationships Dr. Dean had with several woman patients of his, in which he prescribed them opioid based pain relief drugs without a legitimate medical reason. Investigators discovered that Dr. Dean wrote multiple prescriptions in the family names of one woman he had a relationship with, and at times he personally paid the co-pay for these drugs and picked them up at the pharmacy for her. Other information detailed Dr. Dean exchanging text and social media messages with sexual content to a woman before prescribing drugs for her. Investigators further found Dr. Dean prescribing a drug that contained fentanyl to a woman which caused Medicaid to pay approximately $213,000 for coverage. That drug was to be provided for use in cancer patients with breakthrough pain, and the patient Dr. Dean was prescribing this drug to did not have cancer.
This case was investigated by the DEA, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service, Office of the Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Warrenton, Missouri, Police Department, and the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the Missouri Attorney General’s Office.
This case is being prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri.
