Kingwood doctor sentenced to 12.5 years for Recare Health Clinic pill mill
Dr. Maryam Qayum, 68, of Montgomery County, Texas, owned, operated and was the sole prescriber at Recare Health Clinic in Kingwood, which she ran as a cash-only pill mill, selling controlled-substance prescriptions to street-level drug dealers referred to in court documents as "providers." Qayum issued prescriptions for high-strength, highly addictive oxycodone and hydrocodone without a legitimate medical purpose and, according to court documents, often without ever interacting with the patient, issuing prescriptions for more than 3 million opioid pills between 2022 and 2025 before law enforcement shut the clinic down. Prescriptions were priced by drug and strength, as much as $500 for oxycodone 30mg and often $300 for hydrocodone, and staff took cash tips from drug dealers to fast-track prescriptions. Qayum pleaded guilty in March 2026 to conspiracy to unlawfully distribute controlled substances and was sentenced on August 5, 2026 to 12.5 years in federal prison. Four co-defendants, including a nurse practitioner, a security guard, a street-level dealer and a pharmacist, were also sentenced in the case.
- Year
- 2026
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Sentenced
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Pill mill fraud
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-16
The facts, as recorded
- Dr. Maryam Qayum, M.D., 68, of Montgomery County, Texas, owned, operated and was the sole prescriber at Recare Health Clinic (Recare) in Kingwood.
- Qayum ran Recare as a cash-only pill mill, selling controlled-substance prescriptions to street-level drug dealers who were referred to at Recare as 'providers.'
- 'Providers' purchased prescriptions for high-strength, highly addictive oxycodone and hydrocodone, which Qayum issued without a legitimate medical purpose and, according to court documents, often without ever interacting with the patient.
- Qayum issued prescriptions for more than 3 million opioid pills between 2022 and 2025, when her clinic was shut down by law enforcement.
- Recare charged as much as $500 for an oxycodone 30mg prescription and often $300 for a hydrocodone prescription, and staff frequently took cash 'tips' from drug dealers to fast-track their patients and prescriptions; law enforcement seized a note listing the cash price for each prescription when it executed a search warrant at Recare.
- Qayum pleaded guilty in March 2026 to conspiracy to unlawfully distribute controlled substances, and was sentenced on August 5, 2026 to 12.5 years in federal prison.
- Four co-defendants were previously sentenced: Melvin Sampson, 56, a street-level dealer who brought patients to Recare, received 210 months; Tomi-Ko Bowers, APRN, 71, a nurse practitioner at Recare, received 96 months; Lester Stokes, 38, Recare's security guard, received 63 months; and Jared Williams, RPh, 49, the pharmacist who filled the prescriptions at Surge Rx, received 42 months.
- DEA Houston investigators and the Conroe Police Department investigated the case; it was prosecuted by the Justice Department's Fraud Division and the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas.
Why this case matters
Recare is the most recent documented case on this page and shows the cash-for-pills model at its most explicit: a seized handwritten price list, prescriptions sold openly to people the clinic’s own staff called “providers” rather than patients, and a sole prescriber who, by the government’s own account, often never spoke to the person she was prescribing for at all.
A clinic with a full supporting cast
Unlike a single doctor acting alone, Recare’s sentencing involved five people with distinct roles: the prescriber, a nurse practitioner, a street-level dealer who supplied patients, a security guard, and an outside pharmacist who filled the prescriptions without asking questions. That division of labor, each piece replaceable on its own, is part of what let the clinic issue prescriptions for more than 3 million pills before it was shut down.
The caveat
Qayum and all four co-defendants reached their outcomes through guilty pleas rather than a trial verdict, and all five have been sentenced. The facts above come directly from the Drug Enforcement Administration’s own press release describing the case, not from an unproven accusation.
Sources
- Texas Physician Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison for Operating a Houston-Area Pill Mill. US Drug Enforcement Administration. Accessed 2026-10-16. Supports: Every fact above: Qayum's age, location and role at Recare Health Clinic, the cash-only pill-mill model, the 'providers' drug-dealer terminology, the lack of real patient interaction, the more than 3 million opioid pills between 2022 and 2025, the $500 and $300 cash prices and the seized price note, her March 2026 guilty plea and August 5, 2026 sentence of 12.5 years, and the sentences and roles of co-defendants Sampson, Bowers, Stokes and Williams.