SCRANTON, Pa. — A doctor accused of prescribing drugs to patients who didn't need them was sentenced Wednesday in federal court.
Dr. Kurt Moran pleaded guilty in federal court last December to drug and medical fraud charges.
He was sentenced to 140 months in prison on Wednesday, but he could have gotten a lot more.
Moran, 70, admitted to prescribing opioids in exchange for kickbacks from drug makers.
Newswatch 16 was on Green Ridge Street in Scranton in 2018 when federal agents raided Moran's office. They took boxes of patient and medical records dated from December 2014 to January 2018.
According to investigators, Moran was part of an elaborate scheme to over-prescribe an opioid called Subsys. It's used by cancer patients to manage pain. But Moran prescribed it to 13 patients who did not have cancer. One of those patients overdosed and died.
Before sentencing, Moran spoke to the judge, saying, "If I have hurt people, then I'm truly sorry. It was never intentional. It was merely doing what I felt was best as a physician."
Eugene Mizenko is a former patient of Dr. Moran. Mizenko also spoke in court, saying he became addicted to the drugs Moran prescribed to manage pain from a previous injury.
Prosecutors say dozens of other patients echo Mizenko's feelings saying, "they never questioned what their doctor was giving them."
"Moran intended to make money, and he wrote prescriptions because he got paid to do so."
Under the terms of a plea deal, the judge sentenced Moran to a little more than 11 and a half years in federal prison. He could have gotten nearly twice that.
Mizenko says the whole situation should never have happened.
"Our medical system is totally a mess in this country. It needs to be restructured or redone because this shouldn't be able to go on in this country like we live in."
In addition to serving nearly 12 years in federal prison, Moran also has to pay the funeral costs for the patient who died, totaling a little more than $6,500.
The judge ordered Moran to surrender at a federal prison on October 17.
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