An Arkansas doctor was arrested Tuesday on federal charges in connection to overprescribing opioids.
Robin Ann Cox, who worked at Arkansas Medical Clinic in Rogers, faces one charge of prescribing without a legitimate medical purpose outside the scope of a professional practice and one count of willfully and knowingly making a material false statement to federal investigators.
Cox came to investigators’ attention after “multiple complaints from local pharmacists, residents, and police departments” in Northwest Arkansas, according to a news release.
The complaints alleged someone was running a “pill mill” by prescribing powerful medication inappropriately.
Investigators analyzed data from the time the clinic opened in May 2018 through the middle of September 2019 and found Cox to be a “suspected over-prescriber” of opioids. "Other evidence," unspecified in the news release, suggested Cox wrote some prescriptions outside the usual course of professional practice.
In the period analyzed, Cox prescribed 214,050 tablets of oxycodone, according to the release. Additionally, about 90% of patients to whom she prescribed controlled substances received at least one opioid prescription during the period.
This evidence was presented to a grand jury, which moved to indict Cox. The second charge, related to false statements, was brought because of things Cox said about the legitimacy of the prescriptions with her name on them, according to the release.
Local and federal agencies were involved in the investigation.