Ex-Stafford Doc Loses Prescription License For Opioid Conviction

MANAHAWKIN, NJ — A former doctor who practiced medicine in Manahawkin had been convicted of illegally distributing opioids. Three years after conviction and five years after losing his medical license, he's been banned from prescribing drugs in New Jersey, the state Office of Attorney General announced Friday.

Dr. Liviu T. Holca practiced family medicine in Manahawkin. Holca was arrested in 2014 for distributing opioid painkillers with no medical justification, the OAG said.

Holca pleaded guilty in 2016 to illegal drug distribution and money laundering. He was sentenced to three years of probation and 100 hours of community service and was forced to forfeit $291,919 from his bank accounts, the OAG said. He was banned from practicing medicine in 2014.

The former doctor's arrest came when Ocean County's opioid overdose death rates were among the highest in the state, according to the OAG.

"There is no doubt that Dr. Holca’s reckless prescribing of opioids helped fuel an addiction crisis that Ocean County is still struggling to overcome,” said NJ Attorney General Grewal. “The permanent revocation of his CDS prescribing privileges may offer little consolation to the families who lost loved ones to the addiction epidemic he helped create and perpetuate, but it ensures he will never again be an illegal source of dangerous, habit-forming prescription drugs in Ocean County or anywhere else in the state.”

During the investigation, Holca wrote prescriptions for hundreds of oxycodone and Xanax pills for an undercover officer whom Holca believed was a patient, the OAG said. The officer repeatedly told him she didn't need the pills for any medical reason but that she took them because they made her "feel good" and that she gave them to friends.

While Holca accepted cash payments for visits, police found over $120,000 in cash hidden throughout his home, including behind a framed picture on the wall, the OAG said.

“This doctor’s indiscriminate prescribing of opioids not only broke the law, it violated the trust we place in doctors to do no harm,” said Sharon M. Joyce, Director of NJ CARES.

The State Complaint accused Holca of the following:

• Holca prescribed painkillers to the undercover officer and patients without conducting physical exams, creating written treatment plans or performing consultations.
• He prescribed drugs to patients with warning signs of addiction of drug diversion. In two cases, insurance or pharmacy benefit management companies warned him about specific patients' drug-related activities. One company told Holca that a patient obtained opioids from several pharmacies and phsyicians. Holca continued prescribing drugs to the patient.
• One patient repeatedly made excuses to ask for additional prescriptions, such as telling Holca his prescription was "stolen," "left in stolen luggage" or "washed in the laundry." Holca continued prescribing to him.
• A note in Holca's file indicated he had reason to believe a patient was abusing Roxicet, Percocet and Suboxone. He believed the patient was taking Percocet from another doctor, but Holca continued prescribing to them.
• The undercover officer told Holca she had no medical need for the pills and that she misused them. He asked her to provide a handwritten note justifying her need for the pills, telling her to write that she had back pain, would not operate heavy machinery and wouldn't hold Holca accountable for problems.
• His office accepted cash from the undercover officer for each visit. Police searched Holca's home and found more than $120,000 in cash stashed in multiple envelopes hidden through his home, including inside books, within chairs, under a mattress, in a closet wrapped in bed linens and behind a framed picture hanging on the wall.
• Police also found two loaded handguns and 12 bags of marijuana packaged for resale in his home.

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