The U.S. Attorney's Office in Southern California has charged a pain management physician, Dr. David J. Smith, and his office manager, Julia Ann Oertle, with perpetuating a scheme to commit healthcare fraud and to manufacture and distribute fentanyl. The drug is a powerful and potentially deadly synthetic opioid that has caused tens of thousands of overdose deaths in the United States in recent years.
According to allegations in the grand jury indictment, Smith specializes in the installation and maintenance of intrathecal pain pumps which are surgically placed in a patient's stomach with two catheters implanted on the spine. Pain medicine is then infused into a reservoir in the pump periodically and meted out directly into the spine.
Starting from December 2017, Smith and Oertle allegedly began compounding fentanyl citrate into vials in a room at Smith’s principal medical practice, San Diego Comprehensive Pain Management Center. This compounding practice is grossly improper and results in the production of adulterated fentanyl.
Smith is alleged to have directed the administration of this fentanyl to patients repeatedly, violating the applicable standards of care by, among other things, prescribing materially excessive quantities of fentanyl and installing pain pumps in patients without proper assessments for patient need. Smith then had false and fraudulent reimbursement claims submitted to Medicare for these administrations. Among other things, the claims were inflated by nearly 60 percent; they sought reimbursement for large volumes of unnecessarily manufactured fentanyl; they falsely represented that excess fentanyl had been discarded, when in fact, it was used; and they did not disclose that the fentanyl was adulterated.
Oertle, according to the indictment, illegally ordered fentanyl citrate for compounding, compounded fentanyl with Smith, and helped direct the illegal billing practices.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office observed that Smith and Oertle violated the trust of their patients by manufacturing and propagating this toxic poison to patients over an extended period of time, further unraveling the fentanyl crisis the country is experiencing. Criminal misconduct within the healthcare system is not only deceitful, but also destructive, according to Special Agent in Charge Stacey Moy of the FBI’s San Diego Field Office.
See more in News.