Juan Ibanez, a doctor in Florida, was recently sentenced to four years in jail for approving prescriptions for hydrocodone, an addictive painkiller, and selling the drug online. Like other doctors who’ve been similarly charged, Ibanez issued prescriptions for online customers even if they never consulted him personally. All they needed to do was fill out an online questionnaire.

Among statements on his Web sites that prosecutors deemed “self-serving” and “meaningless”:
-    The claim that the business operated “100% legally.”
-   The rule that customers could not request specific medication, but could “note on the questionnaire any medication that previously had been used successfully.”
-  That the Web site should only be used for an “emergency medical situation” that necessitated the creation of a “temporary doctor/patient relationship.”

It appears that prosecutors wiretapped Ibanez, as summaries of phone conversations in court records detail how he managed his network of rubber-stamping doctors and physician’s assistants. At least one physician’s assistant expressed reservations that she was working for an internet clinic “which wrote prescriptions which were all for narcotics.”

In the indictment, prosecutors claim he earned more than $85 million (!) writing medically unnecessary prescriptions and distributing the drugs online. Ibanez pleaded guilty to the charges in October.

The Ryan Haight act increased the maximum sentence for illegal distribution of hydrocodone from 5 to 10  years – Ibanez was lucky to get nabbed before the law was passed. After all, he was accused of selling more than 50 million pills between 2003 and 2007. For some context, the mandatory minimum sentence for selling five grams of crack cocaine is five years. More thoughts on Ibanez at the Legitscript blog.

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