ROGERS, Ark. (KFSM) — A Greenwood doctor on Wednesday (Oct. 23) pleaded not guilty in federal court to over-prescribing opioids to her patients.
Dr. Robin Ann Cox, 63, was indicted earlier this month on one count of distribution of a controlled substance and one count of making a false statement.
Cox was arrested Tuesday (Oct. 22) following a U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency investigation into Arkansas Medical Clinic in Rogers.
The DEA said it received several complaints from Northwest Arkansas residents, pharmacists and police departments that the clinic was a “pill mill,” according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Agents said Cox prescribed more than 200,000 tablets of oxycodone between May 2018 and September.
Investigators also said that 90% of Cox’s patients received a prescription for at least one opioid, and many of her prescriptions “were not written in the usual course of professional practice,” according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Cox is free on a $10,000 bond. Her trial is set for Dec. 9 in U.S. District Court in Fort Smith.
A River Valley doctor pleaded guilty in September to running a pill mill in Barling. Dr. Donald E. Hinderliter faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
DEA agents said Dr. Hinderliter an excessive amount of opioids to patients regardless of their prognosis or need, according to court documents.
Earlier this week, the Associated Press reported that the nation’s three biggest drug distributors and a major drugmaker agreed to an 11th-hour, $260 million settlement over the deadly toll taken by opioids in two Ohio counties, averting what would have been the first federal trial over the crisis.
Across the U.S., the pharmaceutical industry still faces more than 2,600 other lawsuits over the deadly disaster, and participants in those cases said the latest deal buys them time to try to work out a nationwide settlement of all claims, AP reported.
