South Texas Primary Care Doctor, Staff Sentenced for Unlawful Prescriptions

US Attorney's Office, Western District of Texas, Dec. 31, 2022

DEL RIO, Texas – A licensed primary care physician along with three members of his clinical staff and his office manager were sentenced Thursday for unlawful distribution of controlled substances and Medicaid fraud.

According to court documents, Dr. Alfonso Luevano, 53, of Carrizo Springs prescribed large amounts of controlled substances, primarily Schedule II opioids, on a regular basis with little or no medical examination.  He also directed mid-level practitioners to provide patients with prescriptions using prescription pads that he had pre-signed.  According to data from the Texas prescription management program, Luevano and his mid-level practitioners issued at least 20,000 controlled substance prescriptions between March 2016 and March 2018.  Hydrocodone alone comprised at least 50 percent of the prescriptions.  The investigation also revealed several instances of Luevano prescribing patients a potentially lethal combination of an opioid, a benzodiazepine and a muscle relaxer.  These illegal prescriptions resulted in multiple patient overdoses, at least two of which were fatal.

Dr. Luevano was sentenced to 121 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release and a $10,000 fine.  He also agreed to forfeit his Texas medical license and to sell his medical office building to pay the restitution and fine.

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