A Downey-based attorney pleaded guilty to a federal narcotics distribution charge for illegally selling more than 1,000 oxycodone pills after offering the opioid drugs for sale on Craigslist.

Jackie Ferrari, 36, a resident of Downey, pleaded guilty to one count of illegally distributing oxycodone.

According to court documents, Ferrari sold a law enforcement source 50 oxycodone pills for $1,200 during a transaction on January 10. Ferrari was arrested in this case on January 18 after agreeing to sell the source another 180 pills for $4,100.

The investigation into Ferrari began after a 22-year-old woman died in August 2018 of a fentanyl overdose, and text messages on the victim’s phone initially indicated that she may have purchased the narcotics from a drug trafficker associated with Ferrari.

While investigators did not link Ferrari to that overdose death, they opened an investigation based on evidence that she is a large-scale trafficker in opiates via the website Craigslist, and information developed by two local police departments tying Ferrari to drug trafficking activities in late 2017, according to an affidavit filed in this case.

Court documents describe how Ferrari posted ads on Craiglist offering oxycodone and other drugs under coded names such as “foxy roxy dolls,” which referred to Roxicodone, a short-acting version of oxycodone. In her plea agreement, Ferrari admitted informing customers that they would be required to ingest a pill in her presence, to verify that they were not law enforcement.

As a result of today’s guilty plea, Ferrari will face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison when she is sentenced on October 21 by United States District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald.

The investigation into Ferrari is being conducted by the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force, which operates under the direction of the Drug Enforcement Administration. The investigation is being led by DEA agents and deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.  The Costa Mesa Police Department and the Cypress Police Department provided substantial assistance in the investigation.

A new U.S. study published in JAMA Internal Medicine suggests that Opioid overdoses may be much more likely to happen in families when somebody in the household has been prescribed these drugs.

Even when a family member gets lower doses of opioids – less than 50 morphine milligram equivalents per day – the overdose risk is almost three times higher than it would be in a family where nobody has been prescribed opioids, the study found.

The overdose risk was nearly 8 times greater when a family member was prescribed 50 to 90 morphine milligram equivalents a day; it was more than 15 times higher at doses above 90 morphine milligram equivalents per day.

The new study shows these prescriptions are important risk factors for overdose for others in the household, he said, and overdose reduction and treatment strategies are needed for family members, too.

The team’s findings are drawn from insurance claims data collected from 2004 to 2015 on 2,303 individuals who had an overdose and 9,212 who did not. This study wasn’t designed to prove whether or how opioid prescriptions within families might directly cause overdoses or deaths.

The results underscore the need for precautions when opioids are prescribed.

To reduce overdoses and deaths, many states have implemented programs to restrict and track opioid prescriptions, and some have also enacted or considered caps on the maximum daily doses that can be prescribed.

Still, when one person in a family gets prescribed opioids, the odds go up that another person in the same family will also take these drugs, the study team notes. And having more opioids in the house can make misuse and overdose more likely – especially when people hang on to any unused pills.

A new U.S. study published in JAMA Internal Medicine suggests that Opioid overdoses may be much more likely to happen in families when somebody in the household has been prescribed these drugs.

Even when a family member gets lower doses of opioids – less than 50 morphine milligram equivalents per day – the overdose risk is almost three times higher than it would be in a family where nobody has been prescribed opioids, the study found.

The overdose risk was nearly 8 times greater when a family member was prescribed 50 to 90 morphine milligram equivalents a day; it was more than 15 times higher at doses above 90 morphine milligram equivalents per day.

The new study shows these prescriptions are important risk factors for overdose for others in the household, he said, and overdose reduction and treatment strategies are needed for family members, too.

The team’s findings are drawn from insurance claims data collected from 2004 to 2015 on 2,303 individuals who had an overdose and 9,212 who did not. This study wasn’t designed to prove whether or how opioid prescriptions within families might directly cause overdoses or deaths.

The results underscore the need for precautions when opioids are prescribed.

To reduce overdoses and deaths, many states have implemented programs to restrict and track opioid prescriptions, and some have also enacted or considered caps on the maximum daily doses that can be prescribed.

Still, when one person in a family gets prescribed opioids, the odds go up that another person in the same family will also take these drugs, the study team notes. And having more opioids in the house can make misuse and overdose more likely – especially when people hang on to any unused pills.

The Trump Administration wants to make it easier for patients and employers to comparison shop for healthcare.  So far, the measures implemented have mostly been baby steps. But, this is about to change as President Trump is expected to soon release an executive order on healthcare price transparency.

If enacted, this executive order would mandate disclosure of prices throughout the healthcare industry, and be enforceable by federal agencies. It would provide patients and employers pricing data that reflect the negotiated rates between insurers, hospitals, and physicians.

The Trump Administration has been gradually chipping away to uncover the murky world of healthcare pricing. For example, in October 2018, President Trump signed two bills into law, the Know the Lowest Price Act and the Patients’ Right to Know Drug Prices Act. These bills removed pharmacy gag clauses, imposed by pharmacy benefit managers, which had prevented pharmacists from proactively telling consumers if their prescription would cost less if they paid for it out-of-pocket rather than using their insurance plan.

And, this month, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertisements of prescription drugs on television will soon be required to include price information.

Nonetheless, the pharmacy gag clause bills and requirement to include list price information in DTC advertisements only incrementally address prescription drug price transparency. A much bigger step would be to overhaul the prescription drug rebate system, as proposed by HHS. However, it’s unclear whether and when that will happen.

Ultimately, drug price transparency alone won’t be sufficient to create conditions conducive to a competitive market. It needs to be coupled with dissemination of information on which medications are the most effective for specific conditions or diseases.

There have been a number of efforts in the commercial sector to address this issue; MedSavvy, for example, which is a Cambia Health Solutions company. Regence Blue Cross and Blue Shield offers MedSavvy to its customers. The federal government is also supporting initiatives to improve the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute’s publication of usable information on comparative effectiveness to consumers. But it’s been a very slow process with few tangible results thus far.

The Trump Administration has also focused on disseminating information regarding the quality of physician practices that serve Medicare beneficiaries. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) established a website called Physician Compare. However, nearly 80% of physicians aren’t included in the website database. Reporting is voluntary, and so there’s selection bias when it comes to the performance data that do appear. Moreover, the website doesn’t include a comparison of fees for physician services.

Beginning January 1st this year, the federal government is requiring every hospital in the U.S. to post lists of prices of services and technologies online. Such lists are known in the industry as “chargemasters” that comprise of prices of thousands of services and products for which a hospital may bill.

But, CMS acknowledges it is not yet enforcing the hospital pricing rule. Furthermore, implementation of the rules has sparked a debate about whether the price lists are creating more confusion than clarity among patients. Services and products are identified in acronyms, abbreviations, billing codes, and medical terminology that most consumers can’t be expected to understand.

The Ventura County District Attorney announced that Garrett Moore (DOB 12/26/1983), of Simi Valley, was sentenced after pleading guilty to a felony violation of Penal Code section 550(b )(1 )- making a fraudulent statement of a material fact for the purpose of obtaining workers’ compensation benefits.

Moore was placed on summary probation for a period of 36 months and was ordered to serve 90 days in the Ventura County jail.

The offense was reduced to a misdemeanor by the court because Moore had previously made restitution in full to victim insurance company, York Risk Services, in the amount of $24,000.

Moore was employed as a custodian for the Simi Valley Unified School District and injured his right shoulder on December 4, 2017.

He was placed off work on temporary total disability and began receiving medical treatment. York Risk Services learned that Moore owned a carpet cleaning business, but Moore told them he had no active role in the business and all the physical labor was performed by his father and son.

York retained private investigators who obtained surveillance video of Moore using both arms to carry hoses, pushing a large pressure washer up and down ramps, and moving large pieces of furniture and appliances. When he was interviewed by investigators, Moore denied doing any kind of strenuous physical activity.