North Jersey doctor allegedly wrote illegal prescriptions for 36,000 opioid pills

PATERSON — Two city women pleaded guilty this week in a federal case in which a doctor who practiced medicine in Paterson for 30 years is accused of illegally providing prescriptions for more than 36,000 oxycodone pills.

The physician, Lisa Ferraro, allegedly provided illegal prescriptions to one of the women, 32-year-old Jasmine McGregor, for more than 12,000 of the highly addictive opioid pills between July 2022 and October 2023, according to the United States Attorney’s Office.

Ferraro also is accused of writing prescriptions for the other woman, Jhenelle Lewis, 35, for more than 9,400 oxycodone pills from January 2019 through September 2023, federal authorities said.

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Ferraro, who is in her 60s, allegedly wrote the opioid prescriptions for people recruited by her co-conspirators to pose as patients without ever examining them or asking about their pain symptoms, according to court records.

Among the alleged recipients of the bogus prescriptions was a man who at the time was incarcerated in a federal prison in Alabama, said the criminal complaint against Ferraro. The charges say Ferraro kept a portion of the pills for her own use.

Ferraro’s lawyer, Linda George, declined to comment about the accusations against her client.

The New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners’ online records say Ferraro’s physician’s license remains active, with no disciplinary complaints pending against her.

Six years ago, Ferraro and two other women had been indicted on state fraud charges alleging they filed bogus claims with health insurance companies. But the courts dismissed those indictments, saying the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office mishandled the grand jury proceedings.

After one of the dismissals, the Paterson Times published a news story quoting a letter that it said Ferraro had sent to its editor about the case.

“I have continued providing quality care to this community for the past 30 years,” the Paterson Times story said, quoting from Ferraro’s letter. “The charges and the ensuing news articles severely damaged my reputation as well as my practice.”

Back then, Ferraro was working out of Ferraro Medical Associates on Broadway in Paterson, a family business started by her father more than seven decades ago. The federal complaint filed last September against her said she was working for HVA Medical Group, which has several offices in Paterson.

Federal authorities had filed their complaints against McGregor and Lewis four months after the charges against Ferraro. The two women are scheduled for their prison sentencings in November and December.