A former Milford physician is part of the largest ever health care fraud enforcement action involving 601 charged defendants across 58 federal districts.

In the Delaware case, Patrick Titus, a physician and owner of Lighthouse Internal Medicine, was indicted on 14 counts of unlawful distribution and dispensing of controlled substances and one count of maintaining a drug-involved premise as a “pill mill,” a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Delaware stated,

According to the filing, Lighthouse Internal Medicine was a pain management clinic.

The filing indicates the Prescription Monitoring Program reported a period between July 2012 and to around December 2014 indicated that Titus wrote over 25,000 prescriptions for over two million doses of Oxycodone products, the vast majority of which were prescribed outside the usual course of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose.

Titus’ license has expired, according to the state search site, which also reported disciplinary proceedings dating back several years.

Nationwide 162 defendants, including 76 doctors, were charged for their roles in prescribing and distributing opioids and other dangerous narcotics.

The charges involved schemes billing Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE (a health insurance program for members and veterans of the armed forces and their families), and private insurance companies for medically unnecessary prescription drugs and compounded medications that often were never even purchased and/or distributed to beneficiaries, a release stated.

The charges also involve individuals contributing to the opioid epidemic, with a particular focus on medical professionals involved in the unlawful distribution of opioids and other prescription narcotics, a particular focus for the Department.

“Health care fraud is a betrayal of vulnerable patients, and often it is theft from the taxpayer,” stated Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “In many cases, doctors, nurses, and pharmacists take advantage of people suffering from drug addiction in order to line their pockets. These are despicable crimes.”