2 docs may have licenses suspended

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - The Indiana attorney general's office is seeking the immediate suspension of two doctors' medical licenses, claiming they have been running pill mills in which they've been over-prescribing pain medication such as Oxycodone.

The attorney general's office filed requests on Monday asking the state Medical Licensing Board to suspend Dr. William Hedrick, of Fort Wayne, and Dr. Lea Marlow, of Jeffersonville.

Hedrick, the founder of the Centers for Pain Relief in Northern Indiana, has had numerous patients die from multiple drug toxicity while in his care and his prescribing habits "are not medically sound and pose substantial risk to the safety of his patients," the attorney general's office alleges.

• LEARN MORE | Read more about the case against Hedrick

Marlow works for the Clark County Wellness Center, where the state says 95 percent of her nearly 3,500 patients receiving prescriptions through the cash-only clinic this year have obtained Oxycodone, a widely abused painkiller.

The Medical Licensing Board will consider the requests for immediate 90-day suspensions on Thursday.

Hedrick did not immediately respond to an email or a phone message left at his Fort Wayne clinic Tuesday. Calls to a number listed as the Jefferson clinic's rang unanswered or received busy signals.

Both clinics have met with controversy in recent months, with people living near the Jeffersonville clinic fighting it since its opening in July.

Residents said they feared it was a pill mill that moved to the city just north of Louisville, Ky., because of tougher regulations on pain clinics that took effect this summer in Kentucky.

The Indiana attorney general's office filing said most of Marlow's patients appear to be from outside Indiana as most of the cars parked there had out-of-state license plates and prescriptions were often not filled in Indiana.

Derek Spence, president Franklin Commons Neighborhood Association, said he didn't think the clinic was legitimate.

"If they saw half of what we've seen, they know there is something unholy going on in that place," Spence told The News and Tribune.

Hedrick, meanwhile, is being sued by the former CEO of his clinic and three doctors who worked for him. They claim he broke the law or acted unethically by signing blank prescription forms for non-physicians to fill out and prescribing narcotics to patients he knew were "doctor shopping," among other things.

WANE-TV reports that Hedrick has denied those allegations and has maintained that those suing him are conspiring to destroy his clinic as they open a competing practice in violation of non-compete agreements.