Category Archives: Insurance Ethics and Fraud

NORRISTOWN – a Franconia doctor “spread poison” and “created a generation of drug addicts” when he allegedly recklessly prescribed painkillers to primarily the county’s young population, authorities alleged.Dr. Richard R. Ruth, 76, of the 300 block of Godshall Road, Franconia, who operated a medical practice in the 200 block of Cherry Lane in the township, was charged Thursday with numerous counts of prescription fraud, prescribing in bad faith, prescribing to a drug dependent person, identity theft, corrupt organizations and dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities in connection with alleged incidents that occurred between 2010 and 2011.“what I think is most offensive, is that when you think about the practice of medicine, the most basic principle of medical ethics is first, do no harm. Dr. Ruth did nothing but harm,” Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman alleged as she announced the arrest. “he did nothing but damage. he created a generation of drug addicts and fed their addictions. he spread poison across our community and he did it for profit.”“he hid behind the façade of his medical practice. But behind the walls of that practice he was no better, in my judgment, than a street drug dealer…,” Ferman added. “We have been able to take the doctor off the street, stop him from treating patients and stop him from prescribing medications and I can say without any doubt here today, he will never, ever have the opportunity to put these pills in our community again.”Ruth’s son, Michael David Ruth, who turned 44 on Thursday, of Ridge run Road, Sellersville, Bucks County, also was charged with conspiracy, corrupt organizations, insurance fraud, identity theft and dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities for allegedly assisting his father in the scheme.Father and son were formally arraigned on the charges before District Court Judge Kenneth Deatelhauser in Souderton. Each remains free on $250,000 unsecured bail pending their preliminary hearings on the charges.“Dr. Ruth’s medical office was known as a very easy place to score prescription drugs,” alleged Ferman, who was joined at a news conference by authorities from Telford, Souderton, lower Salford, Franconia, Hatfield, the Pennsylvania Department of State and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.During the investigation, authorities discovered that a great number of young adults countywide, those between the ages of 20 and 30, were in possession of large quantities of oxycodone, according to Ferman.“Legitimate patients would come in and they would get minimal medical exams, really no medical treatment to speak of, and all they needed to bring was cash and they could get a prescription for one of the most powerful narcotics known to man,” Ferman alleged. “if you complained of pain, you got the drugs…he was actually creating these drug addicted people and then providing for them the prescriptions so that they could satisfy their addictions.”as authorities searched the doctor’s Cherry Lane practice on Aug. 30, and essentially put the practice out of business, patients were still coming into the office to feed their dependency, Ferman alleged.“what we found that day was astounding. while the law enforcement officers were executing the search warrant, patients were coming into the office, some of them stumbling into the office to fill their prescriptions. they needed their drugs,” Ferman alleged.“he was also providing prescriptions to known drug addicts, men and women who would come in with tracks on their arms, come in obviously impaired, and they would simply come in and renew their prescriptions,” Ferman alleged.the doctor, authorities alleged, even renewed prescriptions for people whose family members called and begged him not to give more prescriptions to their loved one. the doctor allegedly ignored the requests.“People who were so addicted from abusing these narcotics that their family members would call and say, ‘Doctor, he’s addicted, don’t give him any more of these drugs,’ and yet they’d walk out with prescriptions,” Ferman alleged.Drug dealers, authorities alleged, also obtained prescriptions from the doctor to acquire drugs to sell on the streets.An investigation of Ruth began in September 2010 when Telford police and other local, county, state and federal law enforcement agencies received information from confidential sources that numerous people in the Indian Valley area were engaged in crimes related to their use and delivery of oxycodone and other powerful prescription narcotics, according to court papers.“they started to hear about prescriptions that were just flowing out into the community,” Ferman alleged.Investigators uncovered a trend in that many of the people found possessing the drugs were people between the ages of 20 and 30, Ferman alleged. That trend became apparent as police throughout the county, including the Upper Perkiomen area, investigated cases involving drug overdoses, assaults, child endangerment and drug trafficking, according to arrest documents.in court papers authorities alleged, “high school graduates with promising futures were, in a matter of months, reduced to the misery of an opiate addiction.” some of the young people were reduced to living out of their cars or in area parks and some died as a result of opiate overdose, authorities alleged.“We started in the community, on the street level, to see a frequency where prescriptions that were coming from Dr. Ruth were appearing in criminal investigations,” Ferman alleged.During one Hatfield investigation, authorities found numerous prescription pill bottles for Percocet containing oxycodone, which allegedly were prescribed by Richard Ruth, in the home of a young woman who told authorities she sold her medications to drug addicts, according to court documents.in February, a 30-year-old mother of two was found dead in her Perkasie, Bucks County, apartment, the victim of an apparent oxycodone overdose, authorities said. the drug allegedly was provided to the woman by a friend who had received the prescription from Richard Ruth, according to authorities. the woman’s friend was prosecuted for drug delivery and was convicted in Bucks County Court, authorities said.At about the same time, officials of the Pennsylvania Department of State began receiving complaints from pharmacists about an increasing number of prescriptions issued by Richard Ruth. according to Ferman, between may 2010 and April 2011, the doctor wrote 1,799 oxycodone prescriptions.“That was 230,000 pills that were placed in the community in that one year time period,” Ferman alleged.Authorities alleged Richard Ruth’s office lacked the appearance of a professional medical practice, it being located in the basement of a home which had been converted for use as his practice site and an apartment. Investigators described the office as “dank, cluttered and a stark contrast to any medical office” they had ever observed, according to court papers.the case will be prosecuted by First Assistant District Attorney Kevin Steele and Assistant District Attorney Rebecca Strubel.Follow Carl Hessler Jr. on Twitter @MontcoCourtNews