Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Department of Financial and Professional Regulation Secretary Fernando Grillo today announced a suit has been filed against a Florida-based online pharmacy that illegally prescribed the powerful painkiller Vicodin to an employee in Madigan's office posing as a consumer who had injured his back after slipping on ice.
Despite the potentially harmful side effects of Vicodin, the company provided a prescription for the generic form of the drug without a medical exam of the “patient” and made no effort to verify the “medical history” Madigan's employee provided to the company.
Madigan and Grillo's suit, filed Monday, August 2, in Sangamon County Circuit Court, names as defendants Datamark Human Resources, Inc., d/b/a 1stMeds.com, a Texas corporation not authorized to do business in Illinois; Haywood Hullender, individually and as President and Director of Datamark Human Resources, Inc., d/b/a 1stMeds.com; Terry Hill, individually and d/b/a 1stMeds.com; and Rudolph E. Branch, M.D., individually.
1stMeds.com's Web site lists more than 70 ailments its doctors allege they can treat, ranging from cancer to cerebral palsy to hiccups. They also tout more than 20 pain medications they will prescribe, including Vicodin and Valium. Madigan noted that while Internet prescription drug sites continue to multiply and fill e-mail inboxes, it is against Illinois law for a doctor not licensed in Illinois to prescribe medications to an Illinois consumer.
“A computer is not a doctor and the internet is not a medical office. Patients should not bypass a physical exam before receiving powerful – and potentially harmful – drugs through a Web site,” Madigan said. “If a doctor wants to treat patients in Illinois, he or she must be licensed in Illinois.”
The defendants are charged with violations of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act for failing to disclose that they are not licensed as physicians in Illinois and thus cannot prescribe medications to Illinoisans; representing, either directly or by implication, that it is lawful for doctors not licensed in Illinois to prescribe drugs to Illinoisans; requiring consumers, in advance, to waive any and all liability; and selling and prescribing prescription drugs and/or shipping and delivering such drugs in Illinois or to Illinois residents without a physical examination.
The defendants are charged with violations of the Illinois Medical Practice Act for requiring Illinois residents to sign a waiver of liability; diagnosing, prescribing and treating Illinois residents without being licensed in Illinois; and practicing medicine in Illinois via electronic or other means of communication without being licensed.