CALIFORNIA—Castro Valley orthopedic surgeon, Douglas J. Abeles, M.D., surrendered on an arrest warrant obtained by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office for his role in an insurance fraud scheme occurring out of his East Bay business office. He has been charged with 31 felony offenses following an investigation that was conducted jointly by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office and the California Department of Insurance.
Medical Board records do not show any disciplinary actions against him and also do not reflect that he is board certified in any specialty. He currently has unfettered rights to practice medicine. According to his website drabeles.com, “Abeles specializes in Sports Medicine, Spine Surgery, and General Orthopaedics. He completed fellowships at Georgetown University-Virginia Sports Medicine Institute and also USC-Rancho Los Amigos Spine Surgery in 1995. His residency was completed in 1993 at the prestigious New York Medical College-Brooklyn-Queens (previously known as Catholic Medical Center). He also rotated on the spine and pediatric services at the Hospital for Joint Disease in 1992″.
The Criminal Complaint filed by authorities against Abeles and his office manager, Gabriela Cuevas, alleges that for several years he falsely and fraudulently billed insurance companies for medical services that were not provided. While Abeles, had an orthopedic medical practice in Castro Valley, he also owned and operated at least four medically-related businesses from an office located at the Castro Valley-Hayward border. These businesses included drug testing urine analysis for medical offices that contracted with him. It was through this business that he allegedly fraudulently billed insurance companies for lab reports.
Abeles allegedly formed Physicians RX Network, Inc. (“PRXN”) in 2005 in a location other than his medical office. PRXN contracted with physicians in regards to the dispensing of prescribed drugs, including prescription compound creams, billing the insurance companies on behalf of the physicians for these drugs. In late 2010, Abeles went into the Urine Analysis (“UA”) business, forming Redwood Laboratory Management, LP and Redwood Laboratory Associates, LLC (“RLM”). RLM contracted with physicians in regards to urine drug testing of patients and billing insurance companies on behalf of the physicians for this drug testing.PRXN and RLM operated in the same office and the two businesses overlapped and shared. In May of 2011, Abeles formed another business, PRXN Toxicology, LLC.
Abeles hired Gregg Gorski to be a sales representative, Roxanne Cecot to be the billing supervisor and Larry Davis to be the Chief Operating Officer of PRXN. All three had complained about improprieties in PRXN billings, particularly about over-billing insurance companies for prescription drug compounds. Roxanne Cecot learned that Douglas Abeles told the receptionist at PRXN and another PRXN employee to over-ride the billing software at PRXN and manually increase the prices When Roxanne Cecot complained to Abe!es about the billing improprieties Abeles allegedly replied “Screw them until they catch on.” Abeles allegedly sent an email that said “if any employee further implies any wrong doing to anyone they are to be let go immediately on grounds of insubordination and liable. We cannot operate a successful company with this kind of mutiny …. “‘
One document allegedly sent to insurance companies was was called a “Urine Toxicology Review” report and it purported that the physician that ordered the urine test spent forty-five minutes reviewing medical records that had been submitted for the physician’s review by PRXN. This activity allegedly did not take place and the billing was fraudulent In March of 2013, Gabrieia Cuevas’ work computer was seized pursuant to a court ordered search. There were over 10,200 of these UTR’s stored in her computer.
Abeles posted $355,000 bail and Gabriela Cuevas was released on her own recognizance. Arraignment is scheduled for Monday, November 3, 2014. .Any medical professional or insurance company that believes it may have been a victim to this fraud is asked to contact the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, Alameda ADA Teresa Drenick: [email protected] Facebook Twitter @AlamedaCountyDA. Phone: 510-272-6280. (LINK) 10/28/2014
PLED GUILTY TO FIVE (5) COUNTS VIOLATION OF TITLE 18 OF THE UNITED STATES CODE SECTION 2 AIDING AND ABETTING/CAUSING AN ACT TO BE DONE AND SECTION 1347 HEALTH CARE FRAUD. ON 07/25/2011 TO SERVE EIGHTEEN (18) MONTHS IN PRISON, THREE YEARS PROBATION WITH TERMS AND CONDITIONS.—05/13/2010
EFFECTIVE 03/16/12 SUSPENDED FROM THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND ENDING ONE YEAR FROM EFFECTIVE DATE OR THE DATE DR. JUSTICE IS RELEASED FROM INCARCERATION, WHICHEVER OCCURS LATER. TEN YEARS PROBATION WITH VARIOUS TERMS AND CONDITIONS. RESTRICTIONS: PROHIBITED FROM ENGAGING IN THE SOLO PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND SUPERVISING PHYSICIAN ASSISTANTS.—03/16/2012
CALIFORNIA—A doctor charged with submitting bills for up to $1 million worth of cancer medications–medications that were never provided to patients–will be suspended for a year after he gets out of jail, then placed on 10 years of probation, the California Medical Board has announced.
Glen Justiceran Pacific Coast Hematology/Oncology Medical Group in Fountain Valley. According to a plea agreement, which he signed in 2010, the oncologist defrauded insurers including Medicare, Blue Shield and Blue Cross. He would bill the providers for injectable cancer medications, but patients never received them or they would receive less-expensive drugs, according to the agreement. Insurance companies lost $400,000 to $1 million.
In July 2011, Justice was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $1,004,689 in restitution.
According to legal documents, Justice stated that he committed these crimes because he could not afford to deliver care to patients. Insurance reimbursements were inadequate to fund the operations of his practice, he testified. At an administrative hearing, Justice explained that there were pressures on him and he “could not say no.” He recalled how patients “kept coming in with no insurance” and how he “took care of a lot of people who were indigent.” He stated that he “felt trapped and did not know how to [tell patients] ‘I don’t have your medicine because I cannot pay for it,’ and stated that "the way to fix it was to fix the billing.” He insisted that patient care was never compromised.
A clinical psychologist who treated Justice testified that Justice said he used “upcoding” (over-billing insurance providers by using codes for more serious medical conditions) and obtaining illegal reimbursements for medications not provided to keep his clinic running. The illegal funds also covered tens of thousands of dollars in financial support to Justice’s adult sons. According to the psychologist, Justice suffered from depression and anxiety, and is now on medication. Prior to his conviction, Justice was active in cancer research, gave numerous lectures for the American Cancer Society and volunteered his time on medical missions to Haiti, Ukraine and Mexico, according to documents.
The California Medical Board has concluded that Justice has “accepted responsibility for his crimes and has made attempts to rectify his transgressions.” Justice, who has not yet served his sentence, will be able to practice medicine after his year-long suspension, but will be prohibited from supervising physician assistants and engaging in solo practice. (LINK) 03/21/2012
CALIFORNIA—Dr. Glen R. Justice, the Fountain Valley oncologist who continued defrauding Medicare after signing a plea agreement, will be allowed to practice medicine after his release from prison next year.
Justice, 67, is serving an 18-month sentence in Lompoc after pleading guilty to five counts of fraud for billing for expensive cancer drugs that were never given to patients. He originally reached a plea deal that called for probation, but federal prosecutors asked for prison time after discovering that Justice continued to submit fraudulent bills after signing the agreement.
Justice’s projected release date is April 2013. Afterward, he will be placed on 10 years of medical board probation, which bars him from solo practice and requires him to take an ethics course.
Over the past few years, several Orange County doctors who were convicted of insurance fraud have faced the harshest punishment – loss of their medical licenses.
Dan Wood, spokesman for the medical board, described Justice’s decade of probation as “heavy” discipline.
“While it might seem lenient compared to some other cases, it really isn’t,” Wood said. “He’s not an imminent threat to the health of anybody. Obviously he’s an excellent doctor with an excellent reputation.”
Mary Haller of Beaumont said her father was one of Justice’s cancer patients, and her father loved Justice. But she said she doesn’t think Justice should be allowed to practice again, particularly because he continued to commit fraud after he was caught.
“I don’t think that’s a strict punishment,” Haller said. “I think he should have lost his license for good.”
Over the past four years, at least three Orange County doctors have lost their license to practice after fraud convictions.
In 2008, Paul Lessler of Newport Beach agreed to surrender his license after pleading guilty to committing Medicare fraud.
In 2009, William Wilson Hampton of Seal Beach had his license revoked while serving a 10-year sentence for defrauding insurers in a multi-million dollar scam.
Also that year, Neil Hollander of Huntington Beach agreed to surrender his license after bilking government insurance out of $1.5 million.
At the board hearing, Justice said he committed fraud to keep his practice financially stable but also said he was giving his two adult sons $10,000 to $15,000 a month, the legal documents say.
Administrative Law Judge Julie Cabos-Owen wrote that Justice “has made sufficient rehabilitative efforts such that revocation of (his) license to practice medicine would constitute unduly harsh discipline.”
The judge cited Justice’s positive contributions, including part time work at the Lestonnac Free Clinic in Orange as well as his volunteer work in Haiti.
Ed Gerber, executive director of the clinic that treats uninsured patients, said he hopes Justice will come back, although he might not have the funding to pay him again.
“It depends on my funding and it depends on what his plans are,” Gerber said. “He’s good for the patients. Right now we don’t have any place to refer patients for oncology.”
UTAH—Dr. Warren Stack made a plea deal, pleading guilty to three of 18 counts against him. He admitted to charges of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, health care fraud and money laundering.
He did not admit to causing the five reported deaths. Both the prosecution and defense say they are satisfied with the resolution, but patients’ families want more.
Ron Yengich, Stack’s attorney, said, “[He’s] guilty and responsible for certain things that were in the indictment, and he pled to them. He’s never felt that he was guilty of everything that was charged in the indictment, but he’s always felt responsible. And he resolved it that way.”
Yengich added, “He feels remorse not only for the practice that was employed, but also for letting a lot of people down in his own life.”
Stack himself had no comment.
Stack also admitted to the judge that between November of 2005 and 2007, he saw roughly 80 patients per day, gave out narcotic prescriptions without an exam and billed insurance companies and Medicare between $70 and $200 per visit.
Barbara Bearnson, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said, “Dr. Stack’s conduct was egregious, and this plea negotiation is an excellent result.”
But Dr. Stack and his attorney maintain his practice never resulted in any deaths. “His thoughts are he was guilty and responsible for certain things that were in the indictment, and he pled to them,” Yengich explained. “He never felt he was guilty of everything that was charged in the indictment, but he’s always felt responsible, and he resolved it that way.”
Terms of plea deal
The plea agreement means Stacks is looking at eight years in prison, if the court accepts the recommendation from prosecutors.
Ron Yengich, Dr. Stack’s attorney.
They will also recommend he pay restitution to the parties involved, including SelectHealth and the federal Medicare program, which were outlined in counts 16 and 18 of the indictment.
As for the other 15 counts, including the unlawful distribution of a controlled substance that resulted in the deaths of five of his patients, those counts have been dropped.
Patients’ families don’t like the deal
Tom Scott, the father of one of those patients was in court Friday. He says Stack is getting off too easy. “I don’t think it’s fair that he should have a chance to get his life back. He took so many people’s lives that I think he should have to give up his life. I think he should’ve spent the rest of his life in prison,” he said.
Scott says his son was being treated for back pain and had overdosed once before. Unbeknownst to him, Brandon Scott returned to Dr. Stack for more prescription drugs, even after he’d undergone treatment and rehabilitation for his pain. But Scott believes he was seeking the prescriptions legitimately because of pain.
The Scotts sued Stack and reached an out-of court settlement. Several other families have also sued Stack, at least one of which claims their son died under his care.
Stack, though, was never charged criminally in their deaths, and Yengich says that was never part of the case. “There was never going to be a date when we pled to his being responsible for any deaths,” he said.
Stack will be sentenced July 21. Until then, he will not be held behind bars. (LINK) —05/08/2009
Medical Board of California arrests Rancho Mirage physician at his medical office
SACRAMENTO — Undercover agents from the Medical Board of California arrested Michael Platt, M.D., today at his medical office in Rancho Mirage. Dr. Platt was charged with practicing medicine without a license. “The mission of the Medical Board is public protection, and this action reflects the Board’s ongoing commitment to that mission,” said Linda Whitney, executive director of the Medical Board.
Dr. Platt’s medical license was already suspended under an Interim Suspense Order on August 6, 2010, for previous misconduct and failure to complete his original terms of probation. An administrative law judge determined that permitting Dr. Platt to continue practicing medicine would endanger the public. Dr. Platt’s license was immediately suspended until a full hearing could be held in the matter.
In October 2010, the Medical Board received a complaint that Dr. Platt was still practicing medicine. An undercover agent from the Medical Board went to Dr. Platt’s place of business twice, posing as a patient. The Medical Board undercover agent was diagnosed and treated by Dr. Platt. Platt then led the agent to a naturopathic doctor, Nichole Gardner, and recommended she prescribe medications to the agent.
Platt and Gardner were both arrested and booked into the Indio County Jail. Platt was charged with the unlicensed practice of medicine. Gardner was charged with aiding and abetting the unlicensed practice of medicine. The Medical Board is asking the district attorney’s office to file criminal charges.
The public record documents in this case can be accessed on our Web site at www.mbc.ca.gov under the heading “Enforcement Public Documents.” (LINK) —01/13/2011
FIVE YEARS PROBATION WITH VARIOUS TERMS AND CONDITIONS. DURING PROBATION, DR. PLATT IS PROHIBITED FROM SUPERVISING PHYSICIAN ASSISTANTS.—03/09/2009
CALIFORNIA—A Rancho Mirage physician had his medical license suspended earlier this month after he failed a mandatory course to review and improve his skills.
Dr. Michael E. Platt, a specialist in alternative, hormone-based treatments, has run what he describes as a “wellness practice” in the Coachella Valley since 1995.
Last year, the state medical board put Platt on five years’ probation after finding him negligent and incompetent in his treatment of three patients for incontinence.
Platt, a physician for 38 years, had to complete a special training and review program at the University of San Diego as part of his probation, but he failed it, leading to the license suspension on Aug. 20.
“They’ve destroyed me,” Platt said of the state medical board.
In an interview with The Desert Sun on Thursday, Platt said the patient criticism was unfounded and that state regulators don’t know how to evaluate his work.
“I’m not a dangerous doctor,” Platt, 66, said. “I have a different approach to everything.”
He added that he plans to fight the medical board’s allegations at a future administrative law hearing.
He said he has retained a Los Angeles-based attorney who has defended physicians in similar cases.
The training Platt was required to complete, the Physician Assessment and Clinical Education program, is passed by 90 percent of the doctors enrolled in it, said Dr. William Norcross, the program director.
Platt’s “deficiencies … would almost certainly result in patient harm and perhaps even death,” Norcross wrote in a declaration used by Administrative Law Judge Vallera Johnson to suspend Platt’s license to practice.
“He does not believe in performing physical exams. He eschews the standard of care and evidence-based medicine,” stated Norcross, a longtime faculty member at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.
But Platt told The Desert Sun the PACE program wasn’t set up to evaluate the alternative medicine he practices.
“I have one specialty that no other doctor does,” which involves treating ailments by tweaking the levels of testosterone, adrenaline, progesterone and other natural hormones in the body, he said.
Platt conceded that his approach also includes taking patients off drugs prescribed by their primary care physicians. He explained that he believes most doctors are beholden to pharmaceutical companies when they prescribe drugs.
He said most of his diagnoses come out of conversations with patients, rather than physical exams.
“Ninety percent of the diagnosis is sitting down and talking to a patient,” Platt said. As soon as he shakes hands with a patient, Platt said he can tell if their adrenaline levels are too high.
“Doctors don’t like me — I’m a threat to the way medicine is being practiced,” he said.
Johnson suspended Platt’s license until a future hearing that could determine whether he’s fit to practice medicine. That hearing hasn’t been scheduled.
The Platt Medical Center, at 72-785 Frank Sinatra Drive, is still open to answer patients’ phone calls, but Platt said he hasn’t treated patients since Johnson issued her decision.
Presently, there are no plans to close the center, which employs about 10 staff members.
Platt previously wrote an occasional column in a special section of the Desert Post Weekly, a sister publication of The Desert Sun, called “Body &Soul” over several years in the 2000s.
Safe therapies
About 60 of the 1,200 doctors who’ve attended the PACE program since it launched in 1995 describe themselves as alternative medicine practitioners — and most of them passed the program, Norcross said.
“Most alternative therapies are safe,” Norcross said Thursday.
Potential dangers emerge when “the practitioner of that type of medicine actually prevents, or stops, or advocates stopping patients from also being treated in conventional, scientifically proven ways,” he said.
Platt’s troubles began in 2006, when a 42-year-old woman complained of Platt’s testosterone prescriptions to cure her incontinence and low sex-drive without an appropriate physical exam, court records show. A friend of hers recommended Platt after seeing him in a TV infomercial.
Platt told the woman his treatment was guaranteed to cure her incontinence in about six days, but the problems persisted, the records state.
Several months later, when discussing the matter with Platt, he became “angry and rude,” the documents say.
Platt said Thursday he had suggested to the woman that it was possible her libido had not improved because she was angry with her husband. That comment prompted her complaint, he said.
In 2007, an undercover investigator with the Medical Board of California visited Platt as a patient with incontinence and a history of heart problems, according to the board complaint.
Platt did not examine her, but he prescribed testosterone and diagnosed her with a thyroid problem and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to the court records.
The state medical board alleges Platt diagnosed and treated the women by doing only superficial physical examinations.
His testosterone treatment “has no scientific basis and is outside the standard of care,” the court documents state.
He also failed to treat one of the women for high cholesterol or refer her to a specialist, according to the board.
Platt countered that this is the first time in his career treating patients from all over the world that he’s run into such trouble.
In the conclusion of his 2006 book, “The Miracle of Bio-Identical Hormones,” Platt writes that new ideas such as his go through three phases:
“First they are ridiculed. Next, they are viciously attacked. Finally … they are accepted as self-evident truths.”
But Platt’s methods could cause harm, Norcross maintains.
“Alternative medicine is fine … in concert with traditionally, scientifically trained doctors,” he said.
“I think that’s where society is going to have an issue, and that is what happened in this case.”
ON 2-21-92: LIFE IN PRISON WITHOUT POSSIBILITY OF PAROLE (PLUS 9 YEARS CONCURRENT)—07/12/90
Died March 6, 2003 of AIDS.
CALIFORNIA—Boggs lured drunk Ellis Henry Greene, 32, into his office, disabled him with a stun gun, and suffocated him with the help of conspirator Melvin Eugene Hanson on April 16, 1988. The doctor then called paramedics, and falsely identified Greene as Hanson. He had forged medical records, and included the real Hanson’s birth certificate and credit cards on Greene’s body. The detectives called to the scene were initially suspicious of Boggs’ story. They reasoned that doctors don’t usually handle patients that early in the morning, and the temperature of the body couldn’t correspond to the time of death given by Boggs; it was also pointed out on a “Forensic Files” episode that Boggs wouldn’t be expected to be treating a heart patient. The coroner’s report however ruled that the death was due to a heart attack caused by natural causes. Hanson’s business partner John Hawkins (in a Columbus, Ohio clothing store chain “Just Sweats”) was called in to identify the body, which he did. Unknown to the police, Hawkins was working with Boggs and Hanson.
The case was officially closed, and the body was quickly cremated at the behest of Hawkins. Hawkins then collected the million dollar life insurance policy he had taken out on Hanson, cleaned out his bank accounts and disappeared. Hanson also went into hiding, adopting a new identity as “Wolfgang Von Snowden.” Meanwhile, Farmers Insurance, which had had to pay out the insurance policy, obtained “Melvin Hanson”’s driver’s license to compare to the picture of the body that was found. They were checking for possible insurance fraud. What they found led them to hire a private investigator to further investigate the case. Also, Columbus Dispatch reporters Robin Yocum and Catherine Candisky began to look into the case as well as the California Department of Insurance Fraud Division (CDI) and Glendale Police Department. Mike Jones was the lead investigator assigned at CDI. Recognizing that Hanson’s driver license photo did not match the coroner’s photo of the deceased at Bogg’s office, Jones had assistance from CDI Investigator Kathy Scholz in reviewing missing person’s reports in the LA area. Investigator Scholz located the missing person report of Ellis Greene and soon CDI investigators had positively identified the murder victim.
Hanson was arrested while arriving at DFW Airport from Acapulco, Mexico. He was detained by an alert US Customs Officer who detected Hanson was carrying a large amount of US Currency. Hanson was then referred to US Customs Office of Enforcement. A Special Agent began an interrogation of Hanson at that point and discovered numerous inconsistencies in Hanson’s story and paperwork he was travelling with. In Hanson’s knapsack, which Customs officials searched, they found 14 thousand dollars of undeclared cash, several identifications including the California driver license of Ellis Greene were found and a book entitled “How To Create A New Identity” which had been taken from the Dade County library. They made contact with the FBI in Columbus and confirmed an outstanding arrest warrant and Hanson was placed under arrest. Also from Forensic Files, the scars that Hanson got from numerous plastic surgeries and hair transplants were still noticeable.
Hawkins proved harder to find as he managed to leave the United States. After an appearance on America’s Most Wanted, and John Walsh profiling his segment on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Hawkins was captured off Sardinia by Italian police. Both Boggs and Hanson were convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Hawkins was convicted of conspiracy to murder and a maximum of 25 years in prison. He got a lighter sentence as he hadn’t been involved in the actual murder, though investigators suspected he was the brains of the scheme.
As a side note the murder trial occurred concurrently with the McMartin Preschool molestation trial in the Los Angeles County Courthouse. California Department of Insurance Fraud Division Investigators Mike Jones and Jerry Treadway worked closely with Glendale Police Detective Jon Perkins to make this case. The 1992 book “Cheating Death” by Edwin Chen provides a thorough and accurate recap of the entire murder investigation. Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Al Mackenzie and Deputy DA Mike Jones (former investigator on the case) prosecuted Dr. Richard P. Boggs in 1989. (LINK) —04/16/1988
ON AN APRIL day last year, a Hollywood computer operator named Barry Pomeroy walked up to the public counter of the Glendale Police Station to file a complaint against a prominent doctor. He said the doctor had tried to kill him with a stun gun.
Pomeroy’s tale, later repeated at a preliminary hearing, was rather strange:
The doctor, he said, approached him one night at a West Hollywood bar called The Spike. Their conversation led to dinner, a trip to Glendale to see its new high-rise architecture and a quick stop by the doctor’s medical office. A few days later, the doctor took him there again, on their way to a Glendale restaurant. He offered to give Pomeroy an EKG, and Pomeroy accepted. Then the doctor opened his arms, enfolded Pomeroy in what Pomeroy thought would be an embrace, but, instead, began to jab at the back of his neck with a small black device that gave a paralyzing shock.
“At first I thought he was into some kind of kinky sex,” Pomeroy said in an interview. “But it just became so intense, I realized he was trying to kill me.” In panic, Pomeroy fought free. To his surprise, the doctor apologized and offered to stitch a bloody cut on Pomeroy’s neck before persuading him to accept a ride home. Because the story lacked corroboration, the district attorney’s office declined to file charges against the doctor, who, a detective informed Pomeroy, had been “an outstanding member of the community” for 20 years. Pomeroy considered the episode surreal, but what he didn’t know was that he had witnessed the prelude to the final ruination of Dr. Richard Pryde Boggs.
A week after Pomeroy filed his complaint, in the early hours of Saturday, April 16, the same Dr. Boggs called 911 to report a death in his office. He told the two patrolmen who responded that the dead man was Melvin E. Hanson, an Ohio businessman whose heart problems he had been treating for several years. The patrolmen were suspicious: They thought it unlikely that a doctor would meet a patient in his office at 5 a.m., as Boggs said he had. They also doubted his contention that the 911 line was busy when he dialed it several hours earlier. They refused to let the doctor sign a death certificate and, instead, called in the coroner, who ruled it a death by natural causes.
The next day, Hanson’s business partner and sole heir, 26-year-old John B. Hawkins, flew into town from Ohio, claimed the body and had it cremated. Two and a half months later, an insurance company mailed Hawkins a check for $1 million–just days before a check of Hanson’s thumbprint on file with the Department of Motor Vehicles showed that he was not, after all, the man who had died.
The victim’s identity was part of a mystery that took months to unravel. Five months after the doctor called police, investigators identified the body in his office as Ellis Henry Greene, a North Hollywood bookkeeper who had been reported missing by his aunt.
The Los Angeles district attorney now alleges that Richard Boggs, once sworn to heal people, lured Greene into his office and used his knowledge of medicine to kill him without leaving a detectable trace in order to carry out an insurance scam. Earlier this month the 56-year-old neurologist was ordered to stand trial on nine counts of murder, conspiracy, grand theft, fraud and assault with a stun gun. The charge of murder for financial gain carries a maximum penalty of death. Melvin Hanson, very much alive, is in custody in Ohio; Hawkins has vanished.
Boggs’ arrest outside his Glendale office last February represented the climactic crash of a once-auspicious career. Described by other doctors as brilliant and passionate about medicine, he was–and still is–adored by loyal patients and was commended by former President Richard M. Nixon for his work in starting one of the first health maintenance organizations. But in the years before the alleged murder, Boggs was a man in dizzying disarray, foundering in a morass of debt, lawsuits and personal chaos. And now, after being portrayed by authorities as the evil genius behind a nearly perfect crime, Dr. Boggs sits in Los Angeles County Jail, awaiting trial.
AS A YOUNG MAN,Richard Boggs never failed to make a strong impression. Those who knew him remember a man on a mission, and in the first decade of his career, nothing could slow him down. At 6 feet, 2 inches, he was an energetic, striking figure with engaging eyes and strong cheekbones offsetting a boyishly upturned nose… more at link (LINK) —10/29/1989
Medical Board Record—G 74594 Disciplinary Actions No documents found
Of 2 counts 187(a)-PC (Murder) & 1 count 23153(A) of the vehicle code (Driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs causing injury) 18 years to life - state prison; $10,000.00 payable to Dept of Corr—12/28/94
CALIFORNIA—The state medical board has revoked the license of the fertility doctor who helped “Octomom” Nadya Suleman become the mother of 14 children through repeated in vitro treatments, according to a decision made public Wednesday.
The Medical Board of California said it was necessary to revoke Dr. Michael Kamrava’s license to protect the public. The revocation takes effect July 1.
The Beverly Hills fertility doctor has acknowledged implanting 12 embryos into Suleman, then 33, prior to the pregnancy that produced her octuplets. It was six times the norm for a woman her age.
That was a mistake, according to the board, which rejected an earlier recommendation to give Kamrava five years of probation to dole out the harsher punishment.
“While the evidence did not establish (Kamrava) as a maverick or deviant physician, oblivious to standards of care in IVF practice, it certainly demonstrated that he did not exercise sound judgment in the transfer of twelve embryos to (Suleman),” the board said in its 45-page decision.
Kamrava’s lawyer Henry Fenton did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.
Since Suleman’s octuplets were born in January 2009, the medical community and public have puzzled over how a doctor could have implanted so many embryos into a patient and how the babies were carried to premature birth.
In practice, fertility doctors avoid mega-births, as high number multiple births are sometimes called, because the process can put the mother at risk for serious complications and death. Crowding in a mother’s uterus could also result in premature birth, cerebral palsy, developmental delays or other health problems for the babies.
To date, Suleman’s octuplets are the world’s longest surviving set. When they were born, the unemployed single mother already had six children — also conceived through Kamrava’s treatments — and was living with her mother in a small house that would soon be foreclosed on.
In early interviews, Suleman praised Kamrava’s care and wrongly claimed that she had only been implanted with six embryos, with two of the embryos splitting to become twins.
With a tearful apology, Kamrava testified at his hearing last year that he implanted Suleman with 12 embryos because she insisted on it and she consented to undergoing fetal reduction if too many of the babies became viable.
The board responded to that defense, writing, “A fetal reduction procedure has risks, including the loss of all pregnancy, and to assign even a scintilla of responsibility to a patient who becomes pregnant and then elects not to follow through with a procedure that may jeopardize her (and possibly her family’s) prized objective is troubling and telling.”
In the hearing, Kamrava said before implanting 12 embryos, he “tried all sorts of conservative ways to help this young woman become pregnant and she wanted to have a large family.”
“I’m sorry for what happened. When I look back, I wish I had never done it,” said Kamrava at the Oct. 21 hearing, wiping at tears. “It’s a very risky, unhealthy pregnancy. She’s lucky she made it through, both for the babies and her.”
Kamrava said that months passed after the treatment, and he never heard from her, despite efforts to contact her. He says he only heard from Suleman again after the babies were born.
The state also found that Kamrava was negligent in the care of two other patients — a major factor in the decision to revoke his license.
“This is not a one-patient case or a two-patient case; it is a three-patient case and the established causes of discipline include repeated negligent acts,” the board decision reads.
Kamrava was found to have implanted seven embryos in a 48-year-old patient, resulting in quadruplets. One fetus died before birth.
Kamrava said at his hearing that he recommended four embryos be implanted, but he implanted seven because the patient insisted.
In another case, Kamrava went ahead with in vitro fertilization after tests detected atypical cells, which can indicate the presence of a tumor. The patient was later diagnosed with stage-three cancer and had to have her uterus and ovaries removed before undergoing chemotherapy.
Kamrava said he should have referred her to a gynecological oncologist but simultaneous to her treatment, news broke about Suleman’s octuplets and he became too distracted to follow up the patient’s care.
In February, a judge recommended the board put Kamrava on five years of probation, but the ultimate licensing decision belonged to the board. Citing negative publicity surrounding Suleman’s case, the judge had said it was unlikely Kamrava would make similar mistakes again.
The board “adamantly” disagreed with that assessment, saying the doctor had already used bad press as an excuse for failing to care properly for the fertility patient who should have been referred to a cancer specialist.
“Accordingly, the board is not persuaded that relying on the public or the media to fulfill or supplement the board’s public protection role is sound policy,” the decision reads.
Medical board spokeswoman Jennifer Simoes said Kamrava could petition for the board to reconsider the revocation, but it’s unlikely it would change the outcome since the board chose to make its own call on Kamrava’s license rather than accepting a proposed decision.
By law, Kamrava can petition for reinstatement three years. (LINK)—06/01/11
CALIFORNIA—A West Hollywood doctor surrendered to federal authorities this morning after being indicted last Friday on federal drug trafficking charges that allege he wrote more than 1,200 prescriptions for powerful painkillers after a federal order revoked his authority to prescribe those drugs.
James William Eisenberg, 72, who resides in the Venice district of Los Angeles, surrendered this morning at the United States Courthouse, where he is expected to be arraigned this afternoon.
Eisenberg is named in an indictment that charges him with four counts of using a revoked DEA registration number and three counts of distribution of hydrocodone, which is the generic drug found in brand-name products such as Vicodin and Norco.
Eisenberg allegedly wrote the prescriptions while he worked out of several medical offices in West Hollywood, including a Santa Monica Boulevard storefront he called Pacific Support Services. Eisenberg also issued “medical marijuana” recommendations from these West Hollywood locations, according to court documents and DEA administrative records.
In order to legally prescribe controlled substances such as hydrocodone, physicians must be registered with the United States Attorney General and have a valid DEA registration number. On December 14, 2011, a DEA administrative judge determined that Eisenberg acted as a “drug dealer” and suspended his registration number. The DEA issued an order permanently revoking Eisenberg’s registration on July 24, 2012.
The orders issued by the administrative judge were based on findings that Eisenberg, who at the time was working out of a “medical marijuana” club in Arizona, “lacked a legitimate medical purpose and acted outside of the usual course of professional practice” when he wrote prescriptions for oxycodone (the generic form of a drug often best known as the brand-name OxyContin) and Xanax in exchange for $150 cash payments. The DEA judge also found that Eisenberg wrote “medical marijuana” recommendations to undercover officers posing as patients, and that Eisenberg prescribed OxyContin to one of the undercover agents “before [Eisenberg] had even performed a physical examination.”
DEA investigators later learned that Eisenberg continued to prescribe controlled substances, including hydrocodone, in violation of the DEA’s orders. A review of a California Department of Justice database that can be used to track prescriptions showed that, following the suspension of Eisenberg’s registration number, patients filled more than 1,700 of his prescriptions for controlled substances, including more than 1,200 prescriptions for hydrocodone. As charged in the indictment, Eisenberg wrote one of those prescriptions on December 27, 2011, less than two weeks after his registration number was suspended.
DEA investigators executed a federal search warrant on one of Eisenberg’s West Hollywood offices on February 19, 2013. The affidavit in support of the search warrant outlines evidence, including surveillance and undercover operations, indicating that Eisenberg continued to write prescriptions for controlled substances in violation of the DEA’s revocation order. The evidence included an operation in which an undercover agent, posing as a patient, obtained a prescription from Eisenberg for hydrocodone and alprazolam (the generic form of a drug best known as Xanax). A receptionist at Eisenberg’s office asked the undercover agent if “he was looking for medical marijuana” as well, according to the search warrant affidavit. According to the affidavit, when a West Hollywood pharmacist refused to fill Eisenberg prescriptions for hydrocodone and alprazolam in June 2012, Eisenberg called the pharmacy and asked the pharmacist to make an “exception” and fill the prescription.
An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
If convicted of the seven counts in the indictment, Eisenberg faces a statutory maximum sentence of 46 years in federal prison.
The investigation into Eisenberg was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration. (LINK) —5/13/13
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