2 Alabama doctors sentenced in pill mill case
MOBILE, Ala. (AP) - Two doctors convicted of running a pill mill on the Alabama coast are going to federal prison.
A judge sentenced Dr. Xiulu Ruan to 21 years and ordered him to pay more than $10 million in restitution during a hearing Friday.
The physician's partner, Dr. John Patrick Couch, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on related charges on Thursday. Couch was ordered to pay about $14 million in restitution.
The two were convicted of illegally operating the Mobile-based Physicians Pain Specialists of Alabama and a pharmacy. They were accused of overprescribing medications and taking in millions in profits.
Investigators determined the two doctors wrote 66,892 prescriptions in 2014, or one every four minutes. Prosecutors claim the doctors grossed $20 million between 2012 and a raid in 2015.