Codefendant in ‘pill mill’ case enters guilty plea

A former employee of doctors John Couch and Xiulu Ruan, who was implicated in an indictment alleging a conspiracy to distribute vast amounts of powerful and addictive prescription painkillers, pleaded guilty today for her alleged role in the scheme. Bridgette Williams Parker, a former nurse at Physicians Pain Specialists of Alabama (PPSA) — which was owned by Couch and Ruan — admitted that she “knowingly and willingly conspired” with the doctors to prescribe and dispense “controlled substances outside the usual course of professional practice or not for a legitimate medical purpose.”

The indictment alleged PPSA essentially operated as a “pill mill,” where patients did not receive medically acceptable scrutiny beyond intake, while the doctors allowed nurses to forge prescriptions for large amounts of oxycodone, morphine, hydrocodone and fentanyl, while they also accepted kickbacks from a pharmacist and ordered unnecessary testing and “upcoding” to increase profits.