A Paterson doctor was sentenced to 87 months in prison and three years of supervised release after writing oxycodone prescriptions for people posing as patients without first evaluating them or assessing if the medication was medically necessary.
Lisa Ferraro, 67, of Hillsdale, pleaded guilty in Newark federal court to conspiracy to distribute oxycodone outside of the normal course of professional practice. She was sentenced to prison last Thursday.
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“Physicians are entrusted with extraordinary power over the lives and health of their patients. When a physician abandons that duty and instead fuels opioid addiction for profit, the damage ripples far beyond a single exam room and into entire communities,” senior counsel Philip Lamparello for the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. “This sentence reflects the seriousness of that breach of trust and sends a clear message: medical licenses are not shields for criminal conduct, and doctors who help drive the opioid epidemic will be held accountable.”
Ferraro practiced internal medicine in Paterson from an office on Broadway, an area renowned for open-air drug markets, until her arrest in October 2023. Prosecutors allege that from January 2019 until September 23, 2023, she prescribed tens of thousands of 30-milligram oxycodone pills to people she never examined or questioned about symptoms.
