A former doctor, who concealed healthcare fraud and prescribed highly-addictive opioid painkillers to at-risk patients at pain clinics in Central and Southwest Virginia, was sentenced to 40 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $200,000 in forfeiture and a $35,000 fine. Duane Dixon, 66, of Bedford, Massachusetts, pled guilty in 2023 to conspiring to distribute fentanyl and other opioids without a legitimate medical purpose and failing to report a pattern of healthcare fraud at clinics operated by L5 Medical Holdings—an LLC which was doing business as Pain Care Center, a line of pain clinics that formerly operated in Woodlawn, Lynchburg, Madison Heights, Blacksburg, and Christiansburg. Dixon agreed as part of his plea agreement to surrender his medical licenses and to never practice medicine again.