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Dr. Jessie Kunkel, of Murrysville, allegedly had been prescribing patients drugs like Adderall and Xanax, but kept a portion of the pills for herself in exchange for writing the prescriptions— something she had been doing since 2018.
“As a medical professional, Dr. Kunkel was trusted to care for her patients and her community,” Acting AG Michelle Henry said. “She violated that trust when she used her patients’ identities to gain access to drugs for her own recreational use. Our office will hold accountable any healthcare professional who takes advantage of their position and puts people’s safety at risk.”
Some patients were no longer receiving prescriptions for Kunkel but she continued to write, fill, and pick up the drugs for herself in their name without their knowledge, sometimes using former patients' health insurance to cover the costs, the AG's office says.
She also is accused of freely prescribing drugs to "people with whom she had personal relationships, without ever evaluating them as a patient, and often overlooking potential health risks," as stated in the release.
The AG's office charged Kunkel with the following:
- Eight counts of Acquisition of a Controlled Substance by Fraud, Forgery, Deception, or Subterfuge
- One count of Sale, Dispensing, Distribution, Prescription or Gift by Any Practitioner Otherwise Authorized By Law So To Do Of Any Controlled Substance to Any Person Known to Such Practitioner to Be or Whom Such Practitioner Has Reason to Know is a Drug Dependent Person
- Five counts of Possession with Intent to Deliver/ Delivery of a Controlled Substance
- Five counts of Possession with Intent to Deliver/Delivery of a Controlled Substance
- Five counts of Possession of a Controlled Substance, and one count of Insurance Fraud.
This case is being prosecuted by Senior Deputy Attorney General Katie Wymard and Senior Deputy Attorney General Todd Goodwin.
Kunkel previously was an Emergency Medicine Physician in Pittsburgh and prior to moving to PA to complete her medical studies, she was educated at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, according to her LinkedIn. In her bio she describes herself as, "Experienced, residency trained emergency medicine physician with a demonstrated history of working in both rural and tertiary care/trauma centers."
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