Virginia fined doctor facing U.S. charges

A Mechanicsville doctor was reprimanded by the Virginia Board of Medicine and paid a $10,000 fine for prescription-related violations similar to those in which he was indicted Thursday in federal court in Boston, state records show.

Dr. Torino R. Jennings, 35, a staff physician at Retreat Doctors' Hospital, was cited in October 2007 for prescribing various Schedule VI controlled substances -- including Cialis, Levitra, Ultram and Viagra -- to clients on the Internet outside a "bona-fide practitioner-patient relationship" as required by law, according to Virginia Board of Medicine documents.

"Specifically, Dr. Jennings authorized said prescriptions without personally obtaining a medical or drug history, without personally performing a comprehensive physical examination, without personally providing information about the benefits and risks of the drug being prescribed, and without personally initiating additional interventions and follow-up care," according to the board's findings of fact.

Further, the board said, Jennings authorized about 150 prescriptions weekly and received compensation from Brandt Technologies for each Internet consultation, regardless of whether he authorized the prescription. In addition, the board said that between June 21, 2005, and Jan. 27, 2006, Jennings authorized 34 prescriptions for Ultram -- a drug prescribed for chronic pain -- for one person, a total of 2,880 dosage units.

"This individual was subsequently treated for liver complications, and was admitted for detoxification on at least one occasion, followed by three months of rehabilitation and relapses requiring aftercare counseling," the board said.

Jennings was assessed a $10,000 fine, which he paid early last year, according to a letter signed by the board's deputy executive director.

The doctor couldn't be reached for comment yesterday.

Jennings, of the 10100 block of Scots Landing in Mechanicsville, practiced primarily at Retreat Hospital at 110 N. Robinson St. in Richmond, according to the board's online records. A spokesman yesterday said Jennings' privileges were suspended as soon as hospital officials learned of the federal charges.

According to the 11-count indictment, Jennings issued between 50,000 and 100,000 prescriptions over the Internet between 2004 and 2007 for SOMA -- a muscle relaxant -- and other drugs to people he never met or examined. He allegedly prescribed the drugs based on brief forms completed by clients for online pharmacies.

The online pharmacies, in turn, paid Jennings $5 to $7 for each prescription he wrote. "Virtually no request for drugs submitted by the online pharmacies to . . . Jennings for endorsement was ever rejected by" Jennings, the indictment says.

In addition, Jennings "knowingly and intentionally" did not report the "hundreds of thousands of dollars he was paid" to the Internal Revenue Service, the indictment states. Seven counts of the federal indictment, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Boston, allege illegal issuance of prescriptions; the others relate to tax fraud.

The indictment was issued out of Boston because electronic tax filings, the type made by Jennings, are handled in Andover, Mass. According to the indictment, Jennings underreported his income by hundreds of thousands of dollars. The largest discrepancy occurred in 2005, when he underreported his income by $96,412, authorities allege.

Jennings is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College and completed his medical training at the Medical College of Virginia at Virginia Commonwealth University. He began practicing medicine in 2003 in Richmond.

Contact Mark Bowes at (804) 649-6450 or .