NJ doctor allegedly wrote illegal prescriptions for 36,000 opioid pills

2 minutes reading

Joe Malinconico
| Paterson Press

PATERSON — Two city women pleaded guilty this week in a federal case accusing a doctor who practiced medicine in Paterson for 30 years of illegally prescribing more than 36,000 oxycodone pills.

According to the United States Attorney’s Office, the doctor, Lisa Ferraro, is alleged to have provided illegal prescriptions for more than 12,000 of the highly addictive opioid pills to one of the women, 32-year-old Jasmine McGregor, between July 2022 and October 2023.

Ferraro is also accused of prescribing more than 9,400 oxycodone pills to the other woman, Jhenelle Lewis, 35, between January 2019 and September 2023, federal authorities said.

Sstory continues below photo gallery

Court documents show that Ferraro, who is in her 60s, allegedly wrote opioid prescriptions for people recruited by her accomplices, who were asked to pose as patients without ever examining them or asking about their pain symptoms.

Among the alleged recipients of the false prescriptions was a man who was incarcerated at the time in a federal prison in Alabama, according to the criminal complaint against Ferraro. The charges say Ferraro kept some of the pills for his own use.

Ferraro’s attorney, Linda George, declined to comment on the allegations against her client.

Online records from the New Jersey Medical Examiner’s Office show that Ferraro’s medical license remains valid and she has no pending disciplinary charges.

More: 7 robberies at 5 pharmacies in North Jersey. Now 2 suspects charged

More: Overdoses remain a problem in NJ. Here’s how Bergen County officials are trying to help

Six years ago, Ferraro and two other women were charged with state fraud after filing false claims with health insurers. But the courts dismissed the charges, saying the Passaic County District Attorney’s Office mishandled grand jury proceedings.

After one of the firings, the Paterson Times published a news story that quoted a letter Ferraro said he had sent to the editor about the matter.

“I have provided quality care to this community for the past 30 years,” the Paterson Times article said, quoting Ferraro’s letter. “The charges and subsequent news articles have seriously damaged my reputation and my practice.”

At the time, Ferraro was working out of Ferraro Medical Associates on Broadway in Paterson, a family business her father founded more than 70 years ago. The federal complaint filed against her last September said she worked for HVA Medical Group, which has multiple locations in Paterson.

Federal authorities filed their charges against McGregor and Lewis four months after the charges against Ferraro. The two women will receive their prison sentences in November and December.