The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced the indictment of a Scranton doctor, Kurt Moran, age 68, on charges related to receiving healthcare kickbacks and unlawfully distributing controlled substances, including distributions resulting in death. The 423-count indictment alleges that beginning in December 2014 and continuing into 2017, Moran conspired with others to pay and receive bribes in exchange for prescribing the drug Subsys (sublingual fentanyl) to his patients. It is alleged that Moran was paid approximately $140,000 over a two-year period to prescribe Subsys to his patients for pain not associated with cancer. In order to conceal and disguise that kickbacks and bribes were being paid to Moran to prescribe Subsys, Insys falsely designated the payments to Moran as “honoraria” for purportedly providing educational presentations regarding Subsys. Moran is also charged with multiple counts of unlawfully distributing Subsys to 13 patients and two counts of unlawfully prescribing Schedule II controlled substances, including oxycodone and fentanyl, which resulted in the death of a 35-year-old man and a 32-year-old woman.
