Michigan’s Leading Prescriber of Oxycodone Sentenced to 8 Years: Feds

DETROIT, MI — Dr. Fanny Dela Cruz, 73, of Livonia — the state’s leading prescriber of Oxycodone and Oxymorphone— will spend eight years in prison for conspiring to illegally distribute the prescription painkiller and defraud Medicare, U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said Wednesday.

During her plea before U.S. District Judge Gershwin Drain, Dela Cruz admitted she signed blank prescription forms for opioids and of the controlled substances through her medical clinic in Livonia, but did not write in a patient’s name, McQuade said in a news release. Dela Cruz also admitted she had never examined the patients who filled the prescriptions.

The filled prescriptions were mostly sold on the black market in Metro Detroit and elsewhere, McQuade said, although in some instances, the patients did consume them. Doctor visits, other tests and the costs associated with filling the prescriptions were fraudulently billed to Medicare, according to the release.

Prosecutors allege that during a 13-month period, Dela Cruz wrote prescriptions for approximately 577,707 dosage units of Oxycodone HCl; 333,394 dosage units of Oxymorphone; 35,185 dosage units of Alprazolam and 663,778 milliliters of Promethazine with Codeine.

“More people die in America every year from prescription drug overdoses than from overdoses of all other drugs combined,” McQuade said. “In addition, prescription drug addiction has led to resurgence in heroin use. Physicians who divert prescription drugs to the street market are contributing to this epidemic, and we are focusing our enforcement efforts on stopping them.”

“The sentencing of Dr. Dela Cruz should send a strong signal to prescribing physicians that the OIG and our law enforcement partners are taking the illegal prescribing and distribution of medications very seriously,” added Lamont Pugh III, special agent in charge of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office of Inspector General - Chicago Region.

The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the General Counsel.

Photo by Be.Futureproof via Flickr Commons