Four Valley Clinics Suspected of Doling Out Oxy Prescriptions Shut Down
Four clinics in the San Fernando Valley have been shut down after a federal raid allegedly found them handing out illegal prescriptions for OxyContin, reports the Daily News.
Two of the clinics were in Reseda, one was in Northridge and one was in Van Nuys. The raid was prompted by a number of recent overdoses, and was carried out by officials from local, state and federal organizations, including the FBI, LAPD and the California Department of Justice.
Those running the clinics are suspected not just of handing out illegal prescriptions to drug dealers, but of Medicare fraud and identity theft involving patients who have legitimate prescriptions for OxyContin. According to the Daily News:
...numerous legitimate patients said their identities had been stolen through medical care identity theft involving the clinics, Parker said.They reported that prescriptions had been filled in their names, then billed to Medicare, he said, adding that "the billings were credited against the legitimate Medicare patients' medical histories, resulting in records indicating that they were using part of their limited allowance."
The clinics have been linked to incidents all across the Western U.S., from Arizona to Utah to Washington state.
