Opioid Nightmare: The Fall of Philadelphia’s Verree Pharmacy

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PHILADELPHIA, PA — Once a thriving pharmacy in the heart of Philadelphia, Spivack Inc., formerly known as Verree Pharmacy, now serves as a stark reminder of the often treacherous ties between profit and the opioid crisis. This week, the former employees and owner of this notorious establishment were held accountable by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for their role in exacerbating the opioid epidemic, as well as health care fraud.

The pharmacy, under the guidance of Mitchell Spivack, its owner and chief pharmacist, along with key employees, Todd Goodman and Eric Pestrack, burgeoned into a nefarious operation that dispensed potent opioids without any regard to legitimate prescriptions. This blatant disregard for lawful procedures extended beyond opioids into other controlled substances.

But the problems didn’t stop there. As part of their ghastly operations, Spivack, Goodman, and Pestrack engaged in prolonged healthcare fraud, billing for drugs that were never actually dispensed to patients. What’s more, they allegedly devised a sophisticated coding system—bill but don’t fill (BBDF)—to illicitly claim insurance payouts from Medicare and other insurers. This fraud didn’t just pad their pockets, but left substantial damages on federal programs.

Their brazen and systematic deviation from appropriate dispensing responsibilities, especially in the light of red flags suggestive of diversion, made Verree Pharmacy an outlier, not just in Pennsylvania, but nationwide. Those actions not only inflicted harm on the public but also left a blot on the integrity of healthcare providers and pharmacists.

Upon conviction, all three individuals were sentenced to prison terms. Spivack was sentenced to 42 months, while Goodman and Pestrack received four and three months, respectively. Additionally, they agreed to resolve civil allegations, resulting in settlements of over $4.1 million, and an irrevocable ban on dispensing controlled substances in the future.

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This decisive action by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, in collaboration with the DEA, HHS-OIG, and the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, underscores the government’s commitment to safeguarding public health, maintaining the integrity of healthcare systems, and protecting crucial resources from abusive practices. Further, it underlines the critical role of multi-agency collaborations in ensuring justice, particularly in complex cases involving health care fraud and opioid abuse.

The outcome of this case offers a glimmer of hope in the fight against the opioid epidemic and rampant healthcare fraud. It sends a clear message to healthcare providers about the gravity of their responsibilities and the perils of deviation. Pharmacies aren’t merely commercial establishments—they serve an essential societal role and have a profound obligation to uphold public health and trust.

The fall of Verree Pharmacy is a chilling reminder of the collateral damage that unchecked greed can wreak on communities, particularly during a nationwide addiction crisis. It underlines the necessity of strict vigilance, rigorous investigation, and stringent accountability to deter such fraudulent and nefarious operations.

Even as Philadelphia, a city disproportionately affected by the opioid crisis, continues to rebuild from the devastation, a critical lesson emerges: vigilance, transparency, and accountability are key to ensuring that our healthcare systems serve as beacons of trust, not catalysts of crisis.

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