Jails, Prisons, and Drugs
SEPTEMBER 29, 1990
The panel discussed the question of crime and drugs in relation to young black men. Topics discussed included the amount of money spent on law enforcement versus crime prevention and do race influences the death penalty. Congressional meeting see c-span video link
https://www.c-span.org/video/?14263-1/jails-prisons-drugs
This clown Matthew Schneider
@M1Schneider was the clown Matthew Schneider @USAO_MIE Attorney General in Michigan when he indicted the Pain Center physicians in Warren, Michigan, 3.5 years ago. It looks like he was writing checks with his mouth; they couldn’t cash.
(The above tweet is independent of Christina Paylan, Dan Laird, and Ron Chapman)
HEALTH CARE FRAUD AND UNLAWFUL PRESCRIBING
The Government alleged that the physicians overutilized interventional pain treatments such as epidural injections, facet injections, and selective nerve root blocks and improperly billed for the treatments. The Government also alleged that the physicians committed healthcare fraud by overutilizing back braces and urine drug screens which added additional compensation.
FEDERAL JURY ACQUITS PHYSICIANS ACCUSED IN $464 MILLION HEALTHCARE FRAUD AND OPIOID SCHEME
Healthcare fraud requires the Government to prove that a physician “knowingly and intentionally” devised a scheme or artifice to defraud a federal healthcare program. Typically this is confirmed when providers bill for services not rendered or “upcode” the services rendered to receive additional compensation.
The theory in the United States v. Bothra et al. was much different. Here the Government alleged that the physician’s utilized opioid painkillers such as Hydrocodone to “hook” patients on the pain meds and then coerce patients to undergo unnecessary injections to continue to receive pain treatment. The jury didn’t buy it.
THE INDICTMENT
ACQUITTED ON ALL COUNTS OF HEALTHCARE FRAUD AND UNLAWFUL PRESCRIBING
The jury heard evidence for over six weeks and deliberated for just ten hours before reaching a verdict on Wednesday, June 29, 2022. As a result, Dr. Bothra, incarcerated for over three years by order of the Sixth Circuit Court of appeals, was released, and Drs Lewis, Edu, and Russo are free from the weight of a federal indictment.
OPINION DAN LAIRD MD ESQ
@DanLairdMDLaird Law PLLC June 29
Today’s Supreme Court decision on opioid prescribing is legally significant! It puts an end to prescribers going to prison when some self-serving zealot “expert” arbitrarily claims that a prescription was “not for a legitimate medical purpose.”
OPINION RICHARD CHAPMAN ESQ
Many chronic pain patients are wondering what this decision means for them. Simply put, it will be harder to prosecute physicians for medical judgment. We won’t see immediate effects, but we will get there over time.
FOR NOW, YOU ARE WITHIN
THE NORMS
