A Kentucky physician has received a five-year prison sentence and must forfeit $12,275 for illegally prescribing opioids at a time when he did not have a legitimate medical practice, the Lexington Herald Leader reports.
Scotty Akers, MD, a physiatrist and former owner of Pikeville (Ky.) Sports, Spine & Joint Pain Center, used Facebook to sell prescriptions for opioids without performing proper physical exams on patients, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Dr. Akers' clinic closed in 2016, according to the report, and he continued to write opioid prescriptions for former patients,
The DOJ said the physician and his wife, a former office assistant, exchanged prescriptions for cash in local parking lots.
Dr. Akers wrote prescriptions to almost 9,000 hydrocodone or oxycodone pills between November 2017 and May 2018, after the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure launched an investigation into his prescribing practices.
His wife was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison.