Posted on 07/17/2009 5:41:33 PM PDT by Larry381
HOUSTON—Dr. Arun Sharma and his wife, Dr. Kiran Sharma, M.D., both 54, have been charged in a 29-count indictment alleging conspiracy to unlawfully dispense and distribute controlled substances outside the scope of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose, United States Attorney Tim Johnson, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent in Charge Zoran B. Yankovich and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced today. The indictment alleges the two doctors illegally distributed 1.3 million tablets of hydrocodone and further charges the two doctors with conspiracy to defraud Medicare, Medicaid and several private health insurance companies of $31 million by filing false claims for medical procedures that were never performed.
"This indictment reflects the DEA's effort to identify and target doctors who discredit the medical health profession who are nothing more than drug peddlers in doctors' gowns motivated by greed with no regard for the well being of the public," said DEA Special Agent in Charge Zorn B. Yankovich. "By obtaining the voluntary surrender of DEA registration's from questionable doctors, the DEA Tactical Diversion Squad is able to put these illegal practices out of business. The DEA will continue to pursue these pain clinic-pill mill operations that have taken root in the Houston area."
According to the allegations in the indictment returned by a federal grand jury late yesterday afternoon, the Sharmas operate the Allergy, Asthma, Arthritis and Pain Centers located at on Cole Street in Webster, Texas, and another on Garth Road in Baytown, Texas. The indictment alleges that Dr. Arun Sharma routinely saw in excess of 70 patients per day and that he routinely wrote prescriptions for hydrocodone that were not for a legitimate medical purpose in exchange for cash payments. Dr. Sharma allegedly received the cash payments for his hydrocodone prescriptions directly from the patient and that he instructed his patients to take the prescriptions to certain pharmacies to be filled.
Arun and Kiran Sharma, according to the indictment, stored large amounts of cash received from the sale of hydrocodone prescriptions at their home. Kiran Sharma allegedly transported large amounts of cash received from the sale of the hydrocodone prescriptions to two safe deposit boxes - one each at Bank of America and Prosperity Bank.
The doctors also were charged with specific counts of illegal drug distribution for hydrocodone prescriptions written to specific patients. In one count, they are charged with prescribing more than 8,000 tablets of hydrocodone to one patient over an eight month period. In two other counts, they are charged with prescribing 540 tablets of hydrocodone to one patient on May 23, 2005, and another 540 tablets to the same patient on Dec. 5, 2005.
Both doctors are also accused of conspiring to defraud Medicare, Medicaid and private healthcare insurers including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, Aetna, Cigna and United Healthcare of more than $31 million for facet joint injections and other medical procedures that were allegedly never performed.
The United States also gave notice in the indictment to the doctors that it intended to forfeit their interest in all of the proceeds of the fraud and the drug distribution.
The court has ordered that a summons issue directing the Sharma's to appear in federal court for arraignment on Aug. 3, 2009.
Upon conviction, each of the 17 health care fraud counts and the healthcare conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in a federal prison and a $250,000 fine. The drug conspiracy and each of the 10 drug distribution counts carries a penalty of five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. Parole has been abolished in the federal prison system.
The criminal charges are the result of a joint investigation being conducted by agents of the FBI, the DEA, the Department of Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector General and the Medicare Fraud Control Unit of the Texas Attorney General's Office in conjunction with the Webster, League City and Baytown Police Departments. The case will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Al Balboni.
CAN GOVERNMENT EFFECTIVLEY CONTROL ANY PROGRAM THEY HAVE PUT FORWARD? THE ANSWER IS NO!
These two aside, the DEA can suck rocks as my wife needs stronger meds than she’s getting, but her doctor has flatly stated that he’s afraid to prescribe what she needs because of the government.
My father got decent pain meds in his last months but my neighbor is self medicating with alcohol (and killing himself as he is diabetic) because his doctor refuses to prescribe strong enough meds ,, and the ones he does prescribe contain nsaids to prevent taking more than prescribed due to liver damage.
And now the feds want to ban vicodin...Our country is out of control.
My doctor has told me the exact same thing when I asked him to refill a Vicodin script. He states the DEA is burying him in forms that compel him to justify ANY narcotic refills he makes-I really needed that pain medication and thanks to the DEA and my spineless doctor I went through 3 weeks of hell. I finally had to go to the hospital emergency room where they gave me a shot of morphine and a script for 20 Vicodin.
I’m sorry to hear that. We’ll pray that you get some help. It’s ridiculous. My wife has had her tests, everything documented but because of the power and money associated with the “war on drugs”, she suffers, you suffer. As Hildy said, the country is out of control. Every day they take one more step, one more freedom away from us.
How’s your wife doing? I hope she’s better.
You can always fly to Mexico or a border town and just have the Mexican pharmacist write and fill you a prescription for anything you want for up to 90 days supply.
Best of luck you guys. You almost need an attorney to have a chance of getting needed pain medicine.
...and all because of a handful of (mostly foreign) doctors that cannot get patients because they are worthless people.
Thanks. She’s got fibromyalgia and a neck/shoulder injury. So it’s chronic and everyday pain. She gets hydrocodone, but it barely touches the pain some days - seems that’s more often than not lately.
Despite what we read in the news Hydrocodone, or Vicodin is a relatively mild pain reliever. Although the guidelines assert it’s for moderate to severe pain-that’s BS, as you well know.
She needs an effective and strong pain reliever like Diludid, Oxycodone, Morphine or Methadone. The last two are particularily effective because they are long lasting. While Methadone is notorious because it’s used to maintain former narcotic abusers the primary benefit it gives beside effective pain relief is that it’s long lasting. One dose can last up to a full day and up to 48 hours. The problem of course is finding a doctor with the right ratio of balls and patient concern to prescribe them. Many doctors will use another excuse about these drugs-that they’re highly addictive, and they are but so what-if they kill the pain you can worry about any addiction at a future date.
Every system will be gamed by a small segment of self-serving scalawags; we tend in this country to overreact to the exception— what we here about or what we fear. This isn’t a failure of govt so much as the dark side of human nature in action.
uh, we also hear,not here, hear?
I meant to reply back to you the other day and got sidetracked. Yeah, her doctor said he thought she should be taking oxycodone or morphine for her level of pain.
We agree too about the addiction to pain meds. We’re adults and know addiction happens on narcotic pain medication. It’s a trade-off that should be up to us. My wife would rather have an addiction to the medication and be able to function than have very poor quality of life just so other people can feel good about themselves keeping addictive medications away from those who need it.
There was a pain management forum that had a doctor as a member. He made the most awful claims about the people on the forum, claiming they were just trying to get narcotics for the pleasure or sale. He claimed that their pain couldn’t have been as bad as described and that they just needed to toughen up. One of the members did some searching and came across a blog of his where he described an emergency of his one night. He had a toothache, and he couldn’t stand the pain so he called a dentist friend of his. He described running red lights at 3 a.m. to get to the dentist’s office for some pain relief.
That’s a good example of one of the problems with pain management. Too many people enacting laws have never been in chronic pain, or they have enough status to not be forced through the same hoops with the rest of us.
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