NJ Doctor Wrote Fake Opioid Prescriptions For Incarcerated Patients: Feds

PATERSON, NJ — A North Jersey doctor has been charged with conspiracy to distribute opioids, after federal officials said she wrote false prescriptions for individuals who "posed as patients," including two incarcerated people.

Officials said Lisa Ferraro, who saw patients at HVA Medical Group in Paterson, collaborated with others to distribute oxycodone "outside the usual course of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose."

She faces a charge of conspiracy to commit opioids for the scheme, which U.S Attorney Philip R. Sellinger's office said took place from January 2020 through about Aug. 23 of this year.

Sellinger said Ferraro, 65, of Hillsdale, wrote approximately 425 prescriptions over the course of the scheme — totaling about 36,500 oxycodone pills that were 30 milligrams each.

"Ferraro typically wrote prescriptions for 90 pills of 30mg oxycodone each, which were typically split three ways among Ferraro, a conspirator who recruited the fake patients, and the fake patients themselves," a news release from U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger's office said.

According to the criminal complaint filed with the charges, an unnamed co-conspirator recruited other people to pose as patients, and gave Ferraro their names, dates of birth, and addresses.

Officials said Ferraro "never physically examined or questioned (patients) about symptoms to determine whether there was a legitimate medical need for oxycodone."

According to charging documents, the co-conspirator would bring the prescriptions to a pharmacy to be filled, and then split the 90 pills three ways.

One of the recruited "patients" had been in the Hudson and Passaic County jails and was reportedly one of Ferraro's clients for almost two years, investigators said. This person was prescribed more than 5,300 pills despite never having been examined, officials allege. Another pill recipient "was incarcerated in a federal prison in Alabama," court documents show.

The U.S. Attorney's office said a charge of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, and a $1 million fine.