State Medical Board Drops Charges Against Former Doctor: Report

FAIRFIELD, CT —A former Fairfield doctor who illegally prescribed oxycodone has had all charges against him by the state Medical Examining Board dropped because he voluntarily surrendered his medical license, according to the Connecticut Health I-Team.

Kate Farrish of the I-Team reports Paul Bellofiore, 57, of Trumbull, also agreed to not contest the allegations against him if he ever seeks to have his license reinstated. The state Medical Examining Board dropped the charges against Bellofiore, who gave up his license in October, on Tuesday, according to Farrish.

Bellofiore was sentenced in federal court earlier this year to two years of probation and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service and was prohibited from writing prescriptions for controlled substances until October 13, 2017, according to a press release from the U.S. States Attorney’s Office.

Bellofiore was a physician who practiced out of an office in Fairfield. Two of Bellofiore's longtime patients were a married couple who lived in Connecticut until 2011 and then relocated to Florida. Bellofiore was aware that the couple obtained forged prescriptions from his former medical assistant, according to the U.S. States Attorney’s Office.

The couple would travel to Connecticut about twice per year and Bellofiore would write six months of prescriptions, including prescriptions for oxycodone. Sometimes Bellofiore would leave prescriptions for a friend or relative with the understanding that the friend or relative would fill the prescription and mail the medication to Florida.

In February 2016 he left a stack of prescriptions to a friend of the married couple that were improperly dated to appear that they were issued at monthly intervals, according to the U.S. States Attorney's Office. The stack allowed the couple to receive thousands of oxycodone and Percocet pills and the prescriptions didn't note that the couple lived in Florida.

The couple diverted a significant amount of their medication to a middleman for street-level resale of the pills in and around Waterbury.

On Oct. 13, 2016, Bellofiore pleaded guilty to one count of issuing unlawful prescriptions for oxycodone.

Read more, including information on two doctors who were recently disciplined by the state Medical Examining Board, at the Connecticut Health I-Team’s website here.

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