Dr. Alan Summers, 79, former owner of a substance abuse clinic in South Philly, will serve four years in prison for illegally selling $5 million of illegal pills, federal prosecutors have announced.
Summers pleaded guilty last week to selling drugs for cash out of his clinic, National Association for Substance Abuse-Prevention & Treatment (NASAPT) at Broad and Wolf streets, across the street from Methodist Hospital.
He was sentenced in Philly federal court on Wednesday to four years in prison with two years of probation, and ordered to pay $4.6 million in restitution,
“Dr. Alan Summers cared more for his financial gain than his oath as a doctor,” Philadelphia U.S. Attorney Louis D. Lappen said in a statement. “His actions helped fuel the opioid epidemic and the illegal distribution of prescription drugs.”
Summers pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, specifically Suboxone, a drug used to treat opiate addiction, and Klonopin, a benzodiazepine used to treat epilepsy, anxiety and panic attacks.
Summers was charged along with doctors Azad Khan, 65, of Villanova, and Keyhosrow Parsia, 81, of Ridley Park.
“None of the defendants conducted medical examinations or mental health examinations as required by law in order to legally prescribe these controlled substances,” the U.S. attorney’s office said. “Dr. Summers also assisted his customers in obtaining health insurance benefits for these illegally prescribed controlled substances by providing false information to health insurance companies so that his customers could fill the prescriptions using their health insurance… Many of the customers who frequented this clinic were, in fact, drug dealers or drug addicts who sold the prescribed medications.”
Khan was convicted by a jury and is awaiting sentencing. Parsia pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years of probation along with ordered fines and asset forfeiture.