Former Local Doctor Charged with Drug Abuse, Fraud

CLEARFIELD  - A former Clearfield County doctor has been arrested for allegedly fraudulently obtaining prescription drugs from his patients.

Amer Khouri, 34, 5234 Abington Way, Erie, was charged by the State Attorney General's Office.  Investigators say Khouri would prescribe doses of Actiq lozenges in varying strengths and recall the prescriptions, citing dosage errors.

Actiq is a brand name for Fentanyl.  It's a drug designed to help cancer pain.  It's available in various strengths.

Khouri was a specialist in Internal Medicine and Oncology at the Clearfield Hospital and served as the attending physician at the Clearfield Hospital Cancer Center, from October of 2000 to February of  2007.

 Officials said that in several instances, Khouri would prescribe the drug to his patients and then contact them after it was filled.  He allegedly would tell the patients that he made a mistake and prescribed the wrong strength.

 Khouri would then tell his patients to deliver the drugs to his office.  He would tell them to come to the back door of his office.

Investigators said that he illegally obtained thousands of Actiq lozenges from patients.

When Khouri was dismissed from the Clearfield Hospital in February 2007, $44,000 worth of controlled and non-controlled substances were found in his office.

Khouri is charged with four counts of obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresentation, fraud, forgery, deception or subterfuge, four counts of prescribing a controlled substance not in good faith and outside the treatment  principles accepted by a responsible segment of the medical profession, four counts of possession of a controlled substance, and one count of misbranding a controlled substance.

The case will be prosecuted in Clearfield County by Senior Deputy Attorney General Patrick Leonard of the Attorney General's Drug Strike Force Section.