2 doctors accused of illegally prescribing pain pills

Two UPMC doctors have been charged with prescribing controlled substances to non-patients in exchange for money and favors.

UPMC police on Thursday charged radiologists Omar Almusa, 45, of Shadyside and Marios Papachristou, 43, of Hampton with conspiracy in the administration of a controlled substance and prohibited acts.

The doctors prescribed the drugs “without good faith in the course of [their] professional practice; outside the scope of patient relationship; [and] not in accordance with treatment principles accepted by a responsible segment of the medical profession,” according to a criminal complaint.

Police received a complaint Feb. 15 that Dr. Almusa prescribed a pain reliever to people who were not his patients, according to the complaint.

The medication, hydrocodone-acetaminophen, is a Schedule II controlled substance used to relieve moderate to severe pain, according to WebMD. Common brands of the drug include Vicodin, Lortab and Norco.

Police said they reviewed Dr. Almusa’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program report and found that he prescribed nearly 6,000 pills to three people between Jan. 1, 2016, and Monday of this week.

The complaint does not name the recipients of the pills from Dr. Almusa, but it identified one of them as the spouse of Dr. Papachristou.

Police also reviewed Dr. Papachristou’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program report and found he prescribed 3,600 pills of the drug to two people between Jan. 1, 2016, and Tuesday of this week, according to the complaint.

Police said one of the people Dr. Papachristou prescribed the drugs to was “a family member of a relative of Dr. Almusa,” and the other person was a friend of Dr. Almusa’s.

The complaint does not provide any details about what the doctors allegedly received in return for the prescriptions.

According to the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Almusa and Dr. Papachristou are associate professors in the Department of Radiology, Emergency and Teleradiology.

Dr. Almusa and Dr. Papachristou were released on their own recognizance after they were arraigned Friday morning. They face a preliminary hearing March 15.

Neither doctor could be reached Friday evening.

A UPMC spokesman could not immediately be reached.