BOSTON (WHDH) - A Boston Medical Center radiology tech was arraigned Friday in Boston Municipal Court Central Division on charges that he received improper prescriptions for controlled substances from a nurse practitioner he worked with at the hospital, District Attorney Kevin Hayden announced.
Rafael Garcia, 44, of Boston, is charged with conspiracy to violate drug laws, obtaining drugs by fraud and larceny of a drug. Judge James Coffey set bail at $2,500 and ordered Garcia to return to court Dec. 29 for a pre-trial hearing.
The Massachusetts State Police Narcotics Unit built information about Garcia’s illegitimate prescription scheme during their investigation of John Cann, a nurse practitioner who worked with Garcia in the Boston Medical Center emergency department, according to a statement.
Cann was arraigned in Malden District Court earlier this year on charges involving issuing improper prescriptions at a Malden pharmacy for Adderall, Lorazepam and Amphetamine ER, many of which he would pick up himself.
Police began their investigation after being contacted by a pharmacist who became suspicious of Cann’s prescription practices and patterns.
The investigation, undertaken in conjunction with the state Insurance Fraud Bureau, showed that Cann wrote numerous prescriptions of Clonazepam, Adderall, Dextroamphetamine, Androderm patches and injectable testosterone for Garcia between February 2021 and June 2023, despite Garcia not being his patient, prosecutors allege. Cann allegedly picked up many of the substances he prescribed for Garcia himself and Garcia had the prescriptions billed to his health insurance.
“Insurance fraud hurts everybody,” Hayden said in a statement. “Putting controlled substances on the street for personal gain—which appears to be the motive here—pushes that hurt even further. The fact that these are people abusing their legal and ethical responsibilities is an added level of medical and professional duplicity. I’m thankful that an alert pharmacist flagged this scheme for investigators.”
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