Upton Care Pharmacy, Inc.
Outcome
U.S. District Judge approved May 31, 2023 consent decree requiring pharmacist Abtin Youssefi-Rashti to pay $100,000, surrender his Maryland pharmacist license for 3 years, and Upton Care to voluntarily surrender its DEA registration, for illegally dispensing controlled substances with unresolved red flags.
Details
Upton Care Pharmacy, Inc. — DEA Consent Decree for Controlled Substance Red Flag Violations (2023)
Outcome: U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte approved a consent decree on May 31, 2023, requiring pharmacist Abtin Youssefi-Rashti to pay a $100,000 civil monetary penalty and surrender his Maryland pharmacist license for three years, and requiring Upton Care Pharmacy, Inc. to voluntarily surrender its DEA registration, to resolve civil allegations that the pharmacy and pharmacist violated the Controlled Substances Act by illegally dispensing controlled substances.
Upton Care Pharmacy, Inc. was a Montgomery County, Maryland pharmacy operated by pharmacist Abtin Youssefi-Rashti. The United States filed civil allegations that Youssefi-Rashti and Upton Care violated the Controlled Substances Act by illegally dispensing controlled substances — particularly by failing to resolve and document red flags before filling opioid prescriptions.
Under the consent decree, Youssefi-Rashti and Upton Care are required to identify and document certain red flags before filling prescriptions, including: when filling a prescription would cause the patient to exceed 90 daily Morphine Milligram Equivalents (MME), and when the patient pays in cash despite having insurance available. The consent decree also prohibits filling combinations of an opioid and a stimulant — a known high-risk drug combination — and prohibits filling prescriptions for buprenorphine without naloxone without reliable prescriber documentation that the patient is pregnant, a nursing mother, or meets other qualifying conditions.
In addition to the $100,000 civil penalty, Youssefi-Rashti agreed to surrender his pharmacist's license to the Maryland Board of Pharmacy and not reapply for three years. Upton Care agreed to voluntarily surrender its DEA registration.
Primary Source: DEA Press Release — The United States and Montgomery County Based Pharmacy and Pharmacist Reach a Consent Decree (May 31, 2023)
How Crucible Prevents This
The consent decree itself codifies what Crucible's controls would enforce by policy: documentation of red flag resolution before dispensing, prohibition on opioid-stimulant combinations, and requirements for buprenorphine-without-naloxone prescriptions. Crucible implements these exact controls as pre-dispensing enforcement rather than post-investigation civil remedies.
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