A Pennsylvania doctor is accused of improperly and illegally prescribing the medication Suboxone to patients in his basement office in Bucks County.
Dr. Kenneth Fox, 55, of Jenkintown, Montgomery County, was arrested and charged with 12 counts each of administration of any controlled substance by a practitioner and furnishing false or fraudulent records and three counts of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance.
The investigation began in November 2023 after police contacted Bucks County Detectives about a complaint against Fox, a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine with an office on Frosty Hollow Road in Middletown Township.
Investigators said Dr. Fox was recently fired from Jefferson Health but was still seeing patients in the basement of the same building where he used suspicious and questionable practices.
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Investigators met with one of the patients who said they had been seeing Fox since late 2017 but noticed his medical practice changed in the summer of 2023 and that he was moved to the basement of the building.
Investigators said Dr. Fox’s patients had to wait inside a hallway where chairs were lined up. They also said there were no scheduled appointment times and people would show up and wait until Fox called out when he wanted to see another patient.
The patient told investigators each office visit cost $130 and would be paid through an app on a phone. Officials said with each visit to the office, the patient would receive a 30-day supply of Suboxone, a medicine that treats dependency on opioid drugs such as heroin or morphine.
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Investigators said Fox would submit the prescription for Suboxone after receiving payment during each office visit.
Investigators then checked with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and learned Dr. Fox was recently fined $489,025 for allegedly failing to maintain complete and accurate records of controlled substances, failing to keep required receipt and dispensing records, failing to perform biennial inventories and writing prescriptions “for stock.”
In February 2024, detectives began using confidential informants and undercover officers to visit Dr. Fox. The informants and officers received Suboxone on each occasion, officials said. They were e-prescribed monthly Suboxone prescriptions between Feb. 10, 2024, and June 4, 2024, according to investigators.
Investigators later learned through the Pennsylvania Prescription Drug Monitor Program (PDMP) that Fox prescribed Suboxone to 80 patients during that timeframe, officials said.
The undercover officers said they heard Dr. Fox’s other patient visits since he left his door open. At no point did they hear him talking to patients about health or other issues, according to investigators.
On June 24, 2024, detectives served a search and seizure warrant at Dr. Fox’s basement office. They found incomplete patient files with most of Fox’s notes being prescriptions, investigators said. Fox told detectives he could make a file based on the knowledge in his head, according to the criminal complaint.
Investigators submitted the 80 patient and audio files to Dr. Stephen Thomas, an expert in pain and disability management as well as controlled substance management.
“Dr. Fox was, in my opinion, selling the prescription as opposed to providing a professional service in the usual course of professional practice,” Dr. Thomas wrote. “The medical records for these individuals were grotesquely deficient in that they contained no significant medical information for any of the patients I reviewed.”
Fox was arraigned on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024, and sent to the Bucks County Correctional Facility under $75,000 bail, 10%. Online court records don’t list any legal representation who could speak on his behalf.
