doc’s understanding from reading “Cliff’s notes” of various laws/rules/regulations or just poor reading comprehension ?

 

http://www.apmss.net/

from their website:

Goals of Treatment

  • To properly diagnose the exact cause of pain
  • To utilize the most conservative, effective treatments available
  • To provide treatment using the latest technology
  • To administer care in a compassionate manner
  • To restore an optimal level of comfort to maintain an active lifestyle

Former Partner in this practice

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Lee County doctor admits to receiving more than $400K in illegal kickbacks

http://www.nbc-2.com/story/38252958/lee-county-doctor-admits-to-receiving-more-than-400k-in-illegal-kickbacks

A Lee County doctor has resigned from his practice days after admitting to defrauding the government out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Federal court documents show Dr. Michael Frey of the Advanced Pain Management & Spine Specialists clinic on College Parkway agreed to plead guilty Friday to two counts of fraud.

Investigators said he received more than $470,000 in illegal kickbacks from representatives of two companies.

Those companies would then file fraudulent Medicare benefit claims, a scheme which lasted for up to six years.

Some of Frey’s former patients, like Jean Sundstrom, are now left scrambling to find a new doctor.

“The man has a demeanor that makes you feel like everything’s going to be OK,” she said. “I don’t see the man as fraudulent. I just don’t.”

In a statement, Dr. Frey’s former business partner said the illegal kickbacks were “concealed from other members of the practice.”

Frey faces up to 10 years in prison, but that could be reduced if he helps investigators prosecute anyone else involved in the same scheme.

Our calls to Frey’s attorney were not returned.

The full statement from Dr. Jonathan Daitch, Frey’s now-former business partner, is below:

“Advanced Pain Management & Spine Specialists would like our patients and the Southwest Florida community to know that we are committed to the highest standards of medical care for our patients and the highest ethical standards for our medical profession.

“The practice recently learned that one of our physicians, Dr. Michael Frey, entered into a plea agreement with the government alleging the unlawful payment of kickbacks to Dr. Frey for the prescription of certain medical products.

“These kickbacks were concealed from other members of the practice. Although the plea agreement alleged unlawful payments to Dr. Frey for the prescription of medical products, it is our understanding that all medical services conducted by Dr. Frey and all medical prescriptions ordered by Dr. Frey were medically necessary and provided or prescribed for the maximum medical benefit to the patient.

“While I’m saddened to learn of Dr. Frey’s actions, our primary responsibility is to our patients and staff.

“Dr. Frey has since resigned from Advanced Pain Management & Spine Specialists and I have assumed sole ownership over the practice.

“I have thoroughly reviewed our operations and have taken proactive measures to ensure that proper patient care and billing processes are being followed, including ongoing, robust compliance training for all staff and continuous audit procedures. I stand behind the superior patient care that the practice provides to patients. To that end, we have assembled a team of highly qualified physicians and staff to ensure the highest quality of ongoing care for our patients.

“We look forward to continuing to provide the specialized services to our patients and our community that can only be found at Advanced Pain.”

While it is not stated in this article… it sounds like a company called Insys Therapeutics that has a product called Subsys… which is a sublingual Fentanyl spray and is only approved for end stage cancer pain, because of this route of administration it has a short onset and short duration of action.  End stage cancer pain can be very abrupt and very severe and using this routine of administration the onset of action is fairly close to giving an injection.

Here is another article about this company and this product and the legal problems surrounding it 5 Doctors Are Charged With Taking Kickbacks for Fentanyl Prescriptions

Whether Dr Daitch was aware what his partner (Dr. Frey) was doing or not…. I would suspect that Dr Daitch’s practice  has found that he now has a lot of “alligators” in his swamp because of the actions of Dr Frey. On the website – as of today – shows Dr Daitch as the only physician in the practice, so now he has at least twice as many pts than he can handle and may find that he is going to have trouble finding another physician to come into his practice and will be glad if a fair number of the pts in the practice.. decide to go elsewhere.

From his letter, sounds like he is going to treat a lot existing pts as “addicts” recommending Buprenorphine as a substitute for opiates and he is blaming insurance/PBM’s for removing pts off various benzos. I suspect that those chronic pts who have been using Subsys will find they have better pain management off of that product because they have probably been on a very serious pain “roller coaster”.. maybe even having been routinely thrown into withdrawal because of the short duration of action of Subsys.

It will be interesting if some of these pts comes forward after their “weaning off” of opiates and put on Buprenorphine or CBD oil and see how their pain is being managed. I may be wrong, but those whose treatment has been the proper dosing of ER & IR opiates.. will not be a bunch of “happy campers” and there may be a few suicides because of unrelenting pain.

 

6 Responses

  1. I am a patient of His and was both shocked & dismayed to get the same letter & info. They are tapering every patient down to the 90 mg threshold Isuffer from both cervical and lumbar spine damage due to a rollover car accident while pregnant . I have severe osteoarthritis and nerve damage, along with DDD , etc. There are no further surgical interventions, other than rods in cages from my lumbar spine, for My damage. I have tried every remedy, including Eastern and Western medicine, before considering opioid medications for pain management. I regularly get nerve blocks and injections, averaging every 4 to 5 weeks as well. I, like many other chronic pain patients, have been accountable & responsible taking my medication and have always been open to any other techniques for pain management. Pill counts, urine testing, etc. I am fearful where this will leave me and many of his patients. I will never be pain-free, but the call is to manage an acceptable amount of pain so that I can function as a human being, mother, friend, etc. I deserve that and so do my loved ones!

  2. All I can say is WTF? (Pardon my language, but what a load of bs!)

  3. What is this garbage? Florida has done nothing with limits to chronic pain patients. I just had my opioids paid for by insurance and it was 800MME for 30 days daily. So I am totally confused by this doctors letter to his patients. For a Pain Management Clinic, how can he be so unknowledgeable? He just has to write on the prescription for non-acute use.
    In addition his CBD oil statement is in direct conflict to Jeff Sessions statement that no CBD oil is legal in the US. (https://lawstreetmedia.com/blogs/cannabis-in-america/cbd-marijuana-extracts-illegal-dea/ )

  4. what,is this “doc.”on LSD or something?you gotta be F—ing kidding.He is setting himself up for extreme retaliation.what aterrifying thought.this is the ilk of a ‘person’that gives birth and abandons the infant in a dumpster.actually,that would be more merciful.the baby would die faster,but surely feel the same pain.I really cant think of anything worse to say about this guy.maybe compare him to a one-celled aomebic bottom feeder….God have Mercy

    • Andrew…on behalf of amebas, I must protest. I’ve been a bio-geek forever & have spent many hours peering at amebas in microscopes. They’ve all been quiet, unassuming types with no malice or cruelty. True, they engulf & consume other one-celled organisms, but only when they need to eat. They seem much higher on moral & ethical scales than this (& many other) docs…not to mention compassion, which they win hands down.

      I like your other comparison much better.
      Best to you,
      kelly

  5. Wow, what an amazing compendium of lies and misleading statement.s Glad I’m not one of this guy’s patients.

    pharmaciststeve already pointed out the lie in sentence #1.

    “…most patients have less pain when they are on lower doses of opiates”???
    Oh really. Jonathon Daitch, old lad, where do you get the facts, studies, & statistics to support that claim? Oh yeah…there aren’t any.

    And tho CBD oil helps some people, it sure doesn’t help everybody & is insanely expensive.

    buprenorphine is safer & more effective? Again, citations please. Again, there aren’t any.

    and so on. Further depressing proof that neither the medical community nor anyone else in this hysteria-fest has any interest whatsoever in truth. Soon we’ll probably see all the books & other historical sources proclaiming that opiate pain meds have always been illegal, ineffective, wrong, & immoral. Orwell just got the year wrong.

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