A Denton physician has been sentenced to federal prison for drug trafficking violations in the Eastern District of Texas. Stanley Charles Evans, 63, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and dispense controlled substances and healthcare fraud and was sentenced to 40 months in federal prison. According to information presented in court, beginning in 2017, Evans, a licensed physician operating a family medicine practice in Denton, unlawfully prescribed approximately 370,000 dosage units of hydrocodone outside the usual course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose. An investigation began after it was reported that Evans was pre-signing opioid prescriptions for patients that were exhibiting drug seeking behavior. Evans would pre-sign the scripts and the patients would be seen by his four nurse practitioners.
An investigation revealed patients were repeatedly able to obtain the strongest prescription for Hydrocodone from Evans and one of the nurses without ever being fully examined or providing any documentation regarding their “pain.” It was also determined that Evans was only present at the office approximately half the time he claimed and that prescriptions for Schedule II opioids were being written for patients even while Evans was out of the country on vacation. The investigation also revealed that nurses were seeing 20 to 30 patients a day and their salaries were production based, receiving a percentage of what they billed instead of a set salary. Additionally, nurses were billing Medicare and TriCare under Evans’ medical identification number, which results in an increased charge to the government for physician services.
