Pennsylvania doctor sentenced to 6 months in West Virginia over pen pill scheme Buzz News

Charleston, W.Va. , A Pennsylvania doctor was sentenced Thursday to six months in federal prison for his role in a painkiller prescription scheme.

Dr. Brian Gullett was also fined $5,000 and returned his medical license.

Gullett, 46, of Clarksville, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty last September to one felony count of aiding and abetting the fraudulently obtaining a controlled substance.

Gullett was charged in 2018 with the group of owners, managers and other physicians associated with Hope Clinic and managing Hope’s daily operations. Hope Clinic had offices in Beckley, Beaver and Charleston, West Virginia, and Wytheville, Virginia. Five other doctors have admitted their guilt. The remaining defendants await trial.

West Virginia has by far the highest drug overdose death rate in the country.

“The criminal conduct in this case took advantage of and worsened an already devastating opioid crisis,” Will Thompson, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia, said in a statement.

The scheme included prescribing oxycodone and other controlled substances that were not for legitimate medical purposes from 2010 to 2015. Some prescriptions provide up to seven pills per day, and many HOPE locations average 65 or more daily customers during a 10-hour workday. A businessman is working, prosecutors said.

Gullett admitted that he signed several oxycodone prescriptions for someone at the Charleston location in March 2013, even though the person’s medical chart did not support the prescriptions and the customer had failed multiple drug tests, he was prescribed pain relievers. Was addicted to drugs, buying and selling pills on the street. Others took pills from the clinic, prosecutors said. Gullet acknowledged that he did not discuss with the client the possibility of addiction or the need for addiction treatment.