A former Plainville physician whose license to practice medicine was revoked in December 2010 has been sentenced to a jail term for illegally prescribing narcotics and insurance fraud.
Richard P. Luzietti, 39, of Plainville, pleaded guilty in New Britain Superior Court to two counts of illegally prescribing a controlled substance and one count of insurance fraud. Judge Hillary B. Strackbein sentenced him to eight years in prison, suspended after four months, and five years of probation. He will be under house arrest with electronic monitoring for the first nine months of probation. He also was ordered to repay $741 to the state’s Medicaid program.
The convictions stem from an investigation by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit in the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney. Investigators found that in 2009, Luzietti had written over 100 prescriptions for Oxycontin and other controlled substances in the names of 33 people, many of whom he had never met. The prescriptions were then delivered to the named persons, who had them filled at a pharmacy and, in some instances, charged the cost of the drugs to the state’s Medicaid program. The drugs were then returned to Luzietti, who kept some for personal use and sold the rest.
Jason A. Aviles was convicted in 2011 in connection with the case and sentenced to jail. The investigation is ongoing and additional arrests are expected.