An Oakton-based doctor pleaded guilty on Wednesday (Jan. 15) to improperly prescribing opioid and amphetamine pills after failing to properly assess patients.
David Allingham, who owns Oakton Primary Care Center, authorized renewals of medications without providing physical examinations of patients between at least April 2019 and January 2024, according to the Department of Justice.
Allingham relied on untrained medical staff to issue prescriptions on his behalf, either in person or via phone-based “office visits,” federal prosecutors said. Virginia pharmacies ultimately filled more than 7,300 prescriptions originating from Allingham’s office during that five-year period, totaling more than 400,000 pills.
“After a national pharmacy chain informed Allingham that its stores would no longer fill prescriptions written by him, Allingham instructed his employees to phase out all brand pharmacies in favor of ‘mom and pop’ pharmacies to avoid further scrutiny of his patients and so he could continue to prescribe high-dose opioids for them,” the DOJ said.
“Multiple” of Allingham’s patients died “within hours, days, or weeks” of obtaining a prescription for oxycodone, federal prosecutors said.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Allingham also:
- failed to properly act on urine drug screens in a “medically appropriate way,” citing Allingham’s continued issuance of oxycodone prescriptions to one patient who failed 40 drug tests between 2019 and 2023
- prescribed at least 527 prescriptions for amphetamines to assist patients seeking weight loss assistance “in contravention of regulations”
- unlawfully used another doctor’s identity to prescribe medications for both himself and members of his family
The federal case doesn’t appear to be Allingham’s first brush up with medical ethics.
In 1999, the Virginia Board of Medicine found Allingham had allowed unlicensed employees to prescribe medications without his advance approval. The following year, inspectors found that he had “failed to keep adequate records of drugs received and dispensed,” the Washington Post reported.
Allingham, 64, faces up to 20 years in federal prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced April 30 by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria.
