Illegal Dispensing of Narcotic Goody Bags Can Bring License Trouble

A recent case of a physician dispensing illegal goody bags of prescription narcotics illustrates the professional licensing issues that professionals can face over illegal or unethical conduct. If you face allegations that you committed illegal or unethical acts in your professional practice, retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team to preserve and protect your professional license. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our highly skilled, experienced, and effective representation.

Goody Bags as Federal Healthcare Fraud

The Department of Justice reports the jury trial conviction of a physician for federal healthcare fraud, after he led a scheme to bilk Medicare and participating insurers out of $2.3 million in reimbursements for “goody bags” filled with unnecessary prescriptions. In this remarkable case, the physician arranged to give the goody bags to patients who had no need for the prescription narcotics, filling them. The physician then billed the insurers for them.

Even more incredibly, the physician’s pharmacy agents in the scheme insisted that patients take the goody bags if they were to receive the prescriptions they needed. The physician engaged in other serious wrongs, including prescribing over 20,000 oxycodone tablets to just a couple handful of patients and then trying to hide his defalcation by transferring over $1 million of the illicit proceeds out of his account and into accounts for his father and minor daughter.

Defending Licensing Issues Sure to Follow

Giving out goody bags of unneeded prescription narcotics, purely to defraud federal healthcare programs and private insurers, is an extreme example of the kinds of disciplinary risks that physicians and other professionals can face. The Department of Justice report indicates that it pursues thousands of physicians on such charges. Criminal conviction, though, isn’t the only risk physicians and other professionals face when someone alleges their unethical conduct. Medical and other professional licensing boards routinely include crime, fraud, and unprofessionalism as grounds to suspend and revoke a professional license.

Yet, professional license disciplinary charges are not the same as a finding of misconduct. Our attorneys can answer disciplinary charges and raise your available affirmative defenses. We are also often able to arrange early conciliation conferences at which to present defense evidence or a case in mitigation of the charges, proposing remedial measures instead of license discipline. We can also invoke your formal hearing rights and, if you’ve already lost your hearing, take available administrative appeals and pursue appropriate civil court relief.

Premier Professional License Defense

If you face professional licensing issues relating to alleged criminal or unethical misconduct, or any conduct falling outside your profession’s standards, you can do no better than to retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team to preserve and protect your license. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now. Don’t let licensing officials fluster you with a grab bag or goody bag of disciplinary charges. Get our premier representation.