Shrewsbury Medical Assistant Loses License For Drug Prescribing

SHREWSBURY, NJ — A physician assistant who worked in Shrewsbury had her license to prescribe medication permanently taken away by the state of New Jersey after she improperly prescribed pain medication, announced New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal.

Cherie Weiss worked at Premier Pain Center, right off Broad Street in Shrewsbury. She agreed to permanently forfeit her privileges to prescribe controlled dangerous substances (CDS) after admitting she prescribed drugs without the approval or knowledge of her supervising physicians.

She also failed to properly document in patient files the prescriptions she was giving out, the Attorney General said.

The Attorney General did not say what specifically the drugs were.

As part of her Physician Assistant (“PA”) license, Weiss was permitted to practice medicine, but only under the supervision of a physician.

She was terminated from Premier Pain Center in 2015 amid allegations of improperly prescribing drugs. Her license was temporarily suspended at that time, and now it has been permanently revoked.

Before the Board grants Weiss any application for reinstatement of her license, she must appear before the state Board of Medical Examiners to demonstrate her fitness to resume practice.

The state of New Jersey has taken an aggressive stance in fighting opioid addiction and the opiate epidemic. The state Division of Consumer Affairs has increasingly been investigating and penalizing doctors who over-prescribe medication, particularly painkillers. For example, in 2017 a record 31 doctors were disciplined by the state for over-prescribing painkillers.

“We’re cracking down on medical professionals who recklessly prescribe pain medications,” said Attorney General Grewal. “Our state faces an unprecedented opioid crisis, and we must take swift action against those who fuel addiction in New Jersey.”

“We cannot let our efforts to end New Jersey’s opioid crisis be undermined by medical professionals who recklessly prescribe habit-forming pain medications that can start patients down the dark path to addiction,” said Sharon Joyce, Director of NJ CARES.

After Weiss was fired, state investigators combed through her patient files. They said they found multiple discrepancies regarding the drugs she prescribed and entries she made into the Prescription Monitoring Program, which is a database kept by the state so they can monitor how many painkillers are being given out.

“The conduct of this physician assistant raises serious questions about her professional judgment and fitness to practice,” said Paul Rodríguez, the Acting Director of the Division of Consumer Affairs. “The Board and the Division of Consumer Affairs has fulfilled its duty to protect the public by ensuring that Ms. Weiss is permanently barred from dispensing controlled dangerous substances and that her license will not be reinstated until she demonstrates she’s fit to resume practice.”