Five Wytheville doctors plead guilty in pain prescription scheme

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Five doctors have pleaded guilty in a pain pill prescription scheme involving clinics in West Virginia and Virginia.

Federal prosecutors say the scheme was tied to the Hope Clinic. It involved the prescribing of thousands of oxycodone pills and other controlled substances that weren’t for legitimate medical purposes from 2010 to 2015. Hope Clinic had offices in Beckley, Beaver, and Charleston, West Virginia, and Wytheville, Virginia. Sentencing for the physicians is scheduled for Dec. 22.

The physicians were indicted in 2018 along with the owners, managers and other physicians associated with Hope Clinic and a group that managed Hope’s daily operations. The remaining defendants are awaiting trial.

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