By the time they were shut down in 2015, four freewheeling clinics had churned out prescriptions for more than 12 million opioid pills and had generated at least $21 million, court records show.
A series of pain clinics, also known as pill mills, in Florida and Tennessee dispensed millions of opioids that federal authorities have linked to a"significant percentage" of 700 patient deaths.
He worried that dozens risked dying from overdoses. He complained to management and tried to rein in the malpractice. But the operators ignored him. Their only concern, he said, was the money pouring in.“It was so very sad,” recalled Valley, now 60. “I knew it was wrong, and I walked away. But I can empathize with those who didn’t. It was tempting. There was just so much money.”in Lenoir City, Tenn.
“The opioid crisis wouldn’t be nearly as bad, where it is today, if it weren’t for pill mills like these,” said David Rausch, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and former police chief in Knoxville whose officers helped investigate the clinics. The clinic, in a squat building flanked by palm trees, was soon churning through hundreds of patients each month. It charged about $300 per appointment and didn’t take medical insurance, according to court records. Its dispensary charged $700 to fill a typical prescription.Patients arrived in cars and vans from up the East Coast. Many were led by a “sponsor,” a drug dealer who paid for the trip, the clinic visit and the prescriptions in exchange for half the patient’s haul of pills.
They had little trouble finding a new spot — patient records and license plates in their parking lot pointed them 860 miles north to eastern Tennessee. A doting grandmother, Hofstetter was a tough, demanding boss. Her police mugshot shows a woman with frizzy black hair, arched eyebrows and a sharp nose and cheekbones.
Once again, the flood of patients worried neighboring businesses and they complained to the landlord. The office was forced to close in August 2013. During one exam, according to an affidavit, an undercover agent asked why a nurse practitioner was inspecting his arms. She was looking for needle marks, she replied.
Federal authorities raided and shut the three clinics in March 2015. That year, more than 1,000 people died of overdoses from prescription and other opioids, including heroin, in Tennessee.
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