Federal authorities arrested CEO of Doane for easy prescription drug fraud of Adderall under the Controlled Substances Act

Ruthia Hay, founder and CEO of subscription-based “digital health company” DONE, and the company’s clinical president David Brody “took advantage of emergency flexibility during this [covid-19] “This was a public health emergency, allowing easy access to Adderall and other stimulants that were not intended for a legitimate medical purpose,” the Justice Department claims.

Both executives were arrested and indicted for distribution of controlled substances, conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, and other charges. This is the first time the DOJ has charged an individual with criminal drug distribution related to their involvement in the telehealth company. DOJ and DEA started cerebral investigationAnother telehealth company, in 2022. Four months after news of the Cerebral probe went public, The Wall Street Journal The report said that the D.E.A. An investigation was also done,

According for prosecution In a case filed Thursday in the Northern District of California, he and Brody “conspired to defraud pharmacies and Medicare” by prescribing Adderall and other stimulant medications to patients who did not suffer from ADHD.

“As alleged in the indictment, the defendants provided easy access to Adderall and other stimulants by exploiting telemedicine and spending millions on deceptive advertising on social media. They generated more than $100 million in revenue by arranging prescriptions for more than 40 million pills,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. A statement said,

Before the pandemic, the ability to issue prescriptions online was limited by the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2008, which required physicians to conduct at least one in-person medical assessment with a patient before prescribing any controlled substance. In 2020, the Drug Enforcement Administration enacted temporary exceptions to the Ryan Haight Act — which the indictment documents claim Doane executives took advantage of by issuing more than 40 million prescriptions since 2020.

According to the charge sheet, Hay, who previously worked at Meta, “made false and fraudulent statements that Dune was a successful business prior to the pandemic” when the company in fact did not generate any “material revenue” before 2020.

He and Brody claimed that Done could accurately diagnose ADHD in a short period of time because its screening process weeded out people who were unlikely to have ADHD, the indictment says. But the company also used “deceptive social media advertisements” that emphasized the ease with which Done members could obtain Adderall prescriptions to intentionally target “drug-seeking patients,” the documents claim. For a monthly fee, Done offered patients diagnosis, treatment and refills of ADHD medication, including Adderall.

According to the indictment, he, Brody and others hired doctors to issue Adderall prescriptions, “whom they believed were not very concerned about patients taking the drug”. Doane had a no-follow-up policy, charged a fee for documenting claims, and paid doctors based on patient load rather than time spent with patients. According to the DOJ, instead of requiring a later appointment for refills, Doane had an auto-refill policy. The indictment claims, “As R. He wrote, the purpose was to ‘use the comp structure to discourage follow-up.'” These allegedly lax prescription policies not only generated millions in revenue for Doane, but also increased the risk of overdoses and At least one patient diedThe DOJ alleged. According to the complaint, one member of Doane described the company as a “straight-up pill company.”

The complaint also alleged that Media reports Claims were made that Doane “made it too easy to obtain Adderall and other stimulants” and after a grand jury subpoenaed another telehealth company, he and Broidy began “altering, destroying, and concealing records and documents” and began using encrypted messaging platforms and their personal email accounts instead of their company email.

If convicted, she and Brody could face up to 20 years in prison. VergeRequested for comment.