A pain physician from North Carolina, who was assigned to clinics in Virginia, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for an illegal drug dispensing conspiracy, The Roanoke Times reported March 19.
Wendell Randall, MD, of Millers Creek, N.C., conspired with others to allow his DEA registration number to be used to prescribe drugs to patients he rarely saw. From 2017 to 2020, he was paid more than $300,000 by L5 Medical Holdings, a company operating pain clinics for a drug and healthcare fraud enterprise, to use his number, according to the report.
Dr. Randall's authorization was used to prescribe Suboxone. Although he seldom visited or examined patients, nurses and other staffers used his registration number to prescribe.
He pleaded guilty in November and faces similar charges in North Carolina.