Delco Doctors Charged With Operating Illegal 'Pill Mill'

More than a dozen doctors and medical professionals have been charged with operating a pill mill that unlawfully provided opioids to hundreds of patients in the Philadelphia region, federal officials announced Wednesday. Some of the pills were sold, and others were given for sexual favors, authorities allege in two indictments.

United States Attorney William M. McSwain said 14 have been charged with various drug-related crimes after nearly 3,700 illegal prescriptions were written by a single business.

Two Delaware County residents have been charged, including a doctor from Springfield and one from Lansdowne.

Thirteen of those charged were employed at Advanced Urgent Care (AUC), a medical business with office locations in Philadelphia, Montgomeryville, and Willow Grove owned and operated by Dr. Mehdi Nikparvar-Fard. Additionally, a Philadelphia doctor who allegedly conspired with a AUC doctor is also charged by indictment.

Federal authorities contend that AUC medical providers unlawfully prescribed opioid painkillers "on a daily basis" from January 2014 through August 2017 and routinely ignored warning signs that patients were abusing or selling their prescription painkillers.

Authorities allege that AUC doctors and physician’s assistants offered the public a "pain management" program that enabled them to obtain opioid painkillers for an office fee that ranged from $80 to $140.

Patients participating in the "pain management" program displayed a variety of warning signs that should have alerted doctors something was amiss, the US Attorney said.

Those warning signs included urine drug screens that were positive for illicit drugs like heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine, urine drug screens that were positive for Suboxone (a drug used to treat opiate addiction), and urine drug screens that were negative for all drugs, suggesting the patients may have been selling their prescription pills, authorities said.

AUC medical providers nonetheless prescribed "enormous" quantities of opioid painkillers — at least 3,678 illegal prescriptions were issued by AUC’s doctors and physician’s assistants, the indictment said.

Charged are:

• Dr. Mehdi Nikparvar-Fard, 49, of Penn Valley
• Dr. Vincent Thompson, 70, of Elkins Park
• Dr. Loretta Brown, 65, of Landsowne
• Dr. Avrom Brown, 70, of Elkins Park
• Dr. Frederick Reichle, 83, of Warrington
• Dr. Marcus Rey Williams, 70, of Coatesville
• Dr. William Demedio, 58, of Springfield
• Dr. Neil Cutler, 77, of Warminster
• Mitchell White, 33, of Philadelphia (Physician’s Assistant)
• Jason Dillinger, 40, of West Chester (Physician’s Assistant)
• Debra Cortez, 56, of Bristol (Physician’s Assistant)
• Samantha Hollis, 42, of Wilmington, Delaware (Physician’s Assistant)
• Joanne Rivera, 35, of Pennsauken, New Jersey (Office Manager)

Each defendant is charged with maintaining a drug-involved premises, and five defendants (Nikparvar-Fard, Rivera, Dillinger, Thompson, and White) are charged with conspiring to unlawfully distribute controlled substances.

Also charged in a second indictment is Dr. Murray Soss of Philadelphia. Authorities allege Dr. Reichle and Soss conspired to distribute and dispense oxycodone outside the usual course of practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose.

According to information from McSwain's office, Soss hired Reichle to write oxycodone prescriptions for Soss’s pain management patients after Soss’s medical license was suspended in April 2017.

Soss and Reichle charged the patients a fee to obtain oxycodone prescriptions, written by Reichle, that were not medically necessary, federal authorities said.

On multiple occasions, Soss collected $2,500 in exchange for accepting a new patient for the sole purpose of that patient obtaining Schedule II narcotics, the indictment alleges.

Reichle is accused of providing oxycodone prescriptions to one of Soss’s patients who was not even present at the time. Soss was allegedly engaged in a sexual relationship with this same patient, McSwain's office said. Soss is also accused of giving the patient opioids in exchange for sexual favors.

Soss is also charged with seven counts of distributing oxycodone and seven counts of health care fraud.

If convicted, all 14 face a range of penalties, including substantial prison time and fines, depending on each defendant’s degree of involvement in the alleged crimes.

“As alleged in these indictments, thousands of illegally prescribed pills flooded our streets because of the conduct of these defendants," McSwain said in a statement. "As these indictments show, medical professionals who violate their oaths and exploit their patients’ addictions to make an easy buck will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Multiple agencies assisted in the investigation, including the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General; the Department of Labor, Office of the Inspector General; the Pennsylvania Department of State; Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General; Abington Police Department; Easttown Township Police Department; and Philadelphia Police Department.

“Healthcare providers who ignore their Hippocratic oaths and put illegal prescription drugs on our streets are nothing more than drug dealers in white lab coats,” said Maureen R. Dixon, Special Agent in Charge of the Philadelphia Regional Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS-OIG). “Medical providers who disregard the law and put greed in front of helping patients can expect criminal repercussions.”

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