Prosecution Rests in Pill Mill Case

Wednesday, February 8, 2017 | 0

The prosecution has rested in the case of two Alabama doctors accused of running a pill mill and dispensing drugs at grossly inflated prices to workers' compensation claimants.

The five-week proceedings in the case against Drs. John Patrick Couch and Xiulu Ruan have revolved around the question of what constitutes acceptable medical practice and whether the doctors violated that standard, AL.com reports. The case opened before U.S. District Judge Callie Granade on Jan. 5. 

Couch and Ruan were indicted on narcotics trafficking charges in April 2015 as part of a multi-state federal crackdown on pill mills. Among the charges levied against Couch and Ruan was an accusation that they accepted more than $200,000 in kickbacks from California pharmaceutical company owner Christopher Manfuso for dispensing overpriced drugs to workers' compensation patients. 

Federal investigators say they discovered emails that describe the scheme, and bank records that corroborate the information. Prosecutors filed an informational brief in October 2015 detailing investigators' allegations. Prosecutors brought out FBI Special Agent Amy White as their last witness on Tuesday to testify about them.

Couch and Ruan face charges of wire fraud, mail fraud, illegal drug distribution, receiving kickbacks and violating the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. They pleaded not guilty to all charges.

A pharmacy and two clinics run by the men were raided by Drug Enforcement Agency agents in 2015. Their clinic, Physicians' Pain Specialists, was shut down and the two were hit with more than 20 counts of federal charges associated with running a pill mill. 

Read WorkCompCentral's previous coverage of the pill mill bust here.