Doctors and Pharmacists Arrested in DEA Surge
https://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2018/4/2/doctors-and-pharmacists-arrested-in-dea-surge
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has arrested 28 people and revoked the registrations of over a hundred others in a nationwide crackdown that targeted prescribers and pharmacies that dispense “disproportionally large amounts” of opioid medication.
For 45 days in February and March, a special team of DEA investigators searched a database of 80 million prescriptions, looking for suspicious orders and possible drug thefts.
The so-called “surge” resulted in 28 arrests, 54 search warrants, and 283 administrative actions against doctors and pharmacists. The DEA registrations of 147 people were also revoked – meaning they can no longer prescribe, dispense or distribute controlled substances such as opioids.
“DEA will use every criminal, civil, and regulatory tool possible to target, prosecute and shut down individuals and organizations responsible for the illegal distribution of addictive and potentially deadly pharmaceutical controlled substances,” Acting DEA Administrator Robert Patterson said in a statement.
“This surge effort has demonstrated an effective roadmap to proactively target illicit diversion of dangerous pharmaceuticals. DEA will continue to aggressively use this targeting playbook in continuing operations.”
The DEA surge is the latest in a series of steps taken by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to crackdown on opioid prescribing. Last August, Sessions ordered the formation of a new data analysis team, the Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection Unit, to focus solely on opioid-related health care fraud.
Sessions also assigned a dozen prosecutors to “hot spots” around the country where opioid addiction is common. Last week the DEA said it would add 250 investigators to a task force assisting in those investigations.
Although overdose deaths are primarily caused by illicit drugs such as fentanyl, heroin and cocaine, federal law enforcement efforts appear focused on opioid prescribing. Doctors and pharmacists are easier to target because they are already in DEA databases, as opposed to drug dealers and smugglers operating in the black market.
As PNN has reported, the data mining of opioid prescriptions — without examining the full context of who the medications were written for or why – can be problematic and misleading.
For example, last year the DEA raided the offices of Dr. Forest Tennant, a prominent California pain physician, because he had “very suspicious prescribing patterns.” Tennant only treated intractable pain patients, many from out-of-state, and often prescribed high doses of opioids because of their chronically poor health — important facts that were omitted or ignored by DEA investigators.
Tennant has not been charged with a crime and denied any wrongdoing. Nevertheless, he retired this month due to the stress and uncertainty caused by the DEA investigation. About 150 of his patients now have to find new doctors, not a simple task in an age of hysteria over opioid medication.
In an interview with AARP, Sessions defended the use of data mining to uncover health care fraud.
“Some of the more blatant problems were highlighted in our Medicare fraud takedown recently where we had a sizable number of physicians that were overprescribing opioid pain pills which were not helping people get well, but instead were furthering an addiction being paid for by the federal taxpayers. This is a really bad thing,” Sessions said.
“It’s a little bit like these shysters who use direct mail and other ways to defraud people. They will keep doing it until they’re stopped. In other words, if we don’t stop them, they will keep finding more victims and seducing them.”
Filed under: General Problems
There have been suicides reported due to the DEAs raid on Dr. Tennant.
Where is the common sense in all of this. Our pain management doctors are writing more prescriptions in the last two years because the CDC guidelines pulled patients from their primary care doctors and pushed them into pain management.
How did doctors that had been prescribing opioid pain medication for 20 years or more all of the sudden not be intelligent enough to write prescriptions?
How did 20 years of being treated with opioid pain medication for a chronic pain condition all of the sudden be an unproven or bad treatment plan.
How humane is it to go from treating someone’s pain with 200MME that allows them to just get out of bed to cut them down to 50 MME because it’s safer? Safer for whom? It’s definitely not safer for the patient that is now going to suffer needlessly. It’s not safer for that patients loved ones as they have to watch them suffer needlessly.
How do addiction specialists become pain management specialists with no training in that area. I haven’t seen pain management doctors taking over addiction treatment centers and telling those doctors how to treat their patients. Or telling addiction specialists what is the safest dosage of methadone or Suboxone, that they aren’t allowed to prescribe over that dosage.
This has all gone beyond stupid and moronic…its SO Agenda 21 eugenics. Its definitley not an unintentional error, This is Intentional.
/U hit the nail on the head..This was all cooked up,,a few years back,,,by the rich elite in this country to fill their pockets on the backs of human life..They are no-better then Adolf Hitler,,thee only other person who thought he had the right to decide who to torture to death,,maryw
I’ve never wished suffering on anyone, not even my worst enemy.. but I’ve been rethinking this often, lately. They are not only wishing it, but are actively seeing to it that pain and suffering are visited upon the entire pain community, patients and providers alike. It’s sad to think that these people would have to be made to suffer themselves, before they could have empathy for the suffering of millions of Americans. What does any of this do to curb addiction or stop the heroin and fentanyl deaths? It isn’t us diverting medication, as we need and have to fight for every mg we’re allowed, to control our pain enough to function.
I agree with Inga and Dr. Isben. This is an all out war on pain and the people in charge are not doctors and do not know or care that they are killing the pain patients!
I wonder IF the CDC/DEA/FDA were forced to make things right, repeal the guidelines, answer for THEIR crimes against the American people IF we will all get an apology and the drs who were ROBBED of their license/career/freedom do they get their licenses/seized property/and life back???
This all has become Sci-Fy CRAZY!!! When has it EVER been ethical/OK/justified that human beings be forced to suffer, forced to turn to suicide/heroin/alcohol as their means to pain management and Good Drs intimidated into denying pts legally prescribed opiate medication for surgery/acute/chronic/cancer/palliative/hospice Pain care, also good drs being arrested/license being revoked/charged with a bogus crime/lose their assets, home, practice, livelihood, WHEN HAS THIS EVER BEEN OK TO DO IN AMERICA!!!
After ALL the letters/phone calls/emails….. they refuse to back down. This has led me to believe they are doing this to “save the government money” as baby boomers come into the age they can receive Social Security (SS was suppose to NEVER be touched by the government, nor borrowed upon. It was to sit in place collect interest and be used ONLY for what it was intended until a president made it OK to borrow from).
Our government has become too big, too powerful, and too damn greedy on both isles.
AMERICANS need to know what is really happening regarding our corrupt government and their Opiate Hysteria. This is no longer about the war on chronic pain it is an all out war on ALL PAIN!!!
Thank you Inga. Our pain advocates are being banned on Twitter. Some can no longer tweet their support. I agree, there is an all out war on people in pain, post op, cancer and hospice. They are being persecuted and tortured. How much longer can we fight when pain engulfs us daily?
of course…suppress the other side. god help us all
Paging Dr Sessions….