Doctor would not give individuals their pain medication … unless they capitulated in having an epidural

Prominent Kentucky pain doctor accused of unneeded pain treatment defends his practice

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2019/02/07/kentucky-pain-doctor-and-derby-horse-owner-sued-northern-kentucky-court/2802764002/

A Northern Kentucky pain doctor, who also was the owner of Kentucky Derby horses “Fast and Accurate” and “Hansen,” has been named as a defendant in a personal injury lawsuit.

But Dr. Kendall Hansen defended his practice in an interview with The Enquirer Thursday. He spent decades building his reputation, he said.

The lawsuit, filed in Kenton County Circuit Court, accuses Hansen and Interventional Pain Specialists of Crestview Hills of providing unnecessary and excessive injection therapy to an Independence woman with chronic pain.

One day later, federal officials served a search warrant at his office.

“We welcome the scrutiny,” Hansen said.

Eric Deters, spokesman of Deters Law  ( http://deterslawfirm.com ) in Independence, said the woman who filed suit, Candi McKinney of Independence, is one of many who were treated unnecessarily with epidurals.

“(Hansen) would not give individuals their pain medication … unless they capitulated in having an epidural,” Deters said Thursday.

“We’re suspicious of people who only want medication and don’t want to get better. Whatever was said between me and the patient” was twisted, Hansen claimed.

Deters said that he was asked to put any clients in contact with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and that he did so. However, he added that he did not know of any particular outcome.

Tim Reagan, resident agent-in-charge of the Cincinnati office of the DEA, said DEA officers were with federal agents at Interventional Pain Specialists for the search but his agency was not leading the search.

Hansen said he believed the search was a result of heightened scrutiny after one of his former nurses was caught stealing medication. Hansen said he reported the nurse to the DEA and local law enforcement.

“I think there’s a big spotlight put on us because of the incident last year,” Hansen said.

He added that medical records were examined by investigators.

“If I was them I would do that,” he said of the investigators conducting the search. “It’s our government dollars at work. We’re an amazing office. We do our due diligence prescribing.”

Hansen said he doesn’t expect future searches.

“My lawyer contacted the director that’s overseeing this in Washington,” Hansen said, “and it will be several months before they come back to us if they have any issues, but we’re confident there won’t be any serious issues.”

McKinney’s lawsuit was filed by Dominick Romeo of Deters Law. Judge Kathy Lape was assigned the case, and a summons was issued for Hansen to answer the suit. Once he receives it, he’ll have 20 days to respond, court documents state.

McKinney claims in the suit that her pain therapy started on Feb. 12, 2014, when she was prescribed oxycodone and a nerve-root block injection at the office. She got the injection Feb. 26 of that year, her lawsuit says.

She was written another prescription for oxycodone on March 26, the same year, the suit says, and then on April 15, she was told to have epidural injection therapy and her pain medication was increased, the suit claims.

“At least once a month, Plaintiff would undergo injection therapy and would be written a prescription for narcotic pain medication,” the suit states. She said she was afraid that if she didn’t undergo the “recommended injection therapy, her pain medication would be withheld from her.”

The suit also claims that McKinney asked about receiving Narcan, the antidote for opioid overdoses, because she already had prescriptions for a fentanyl patch and Percocet. Both of these are synthetic opiates that are commonly prescribed for pain.

The treatment continued until September 2018, the suit says, and that’s when she first saw Hansen and was given a new prescription for pain medication.

She saw Hansen Oct. 2, and medication was refilled, the suit claims. On Nov. 27, she says, Hansen recommended she undergo injection therapy again.

But she didn’t want an injection, the suit claims, and so Hansen “would not fill” her medication after Dec. 1, 2018.

She says in her suit that the injections caused “great pain and suffering due to the fact that they required pre-testing with probes on both sides of her spine” before she would get them.

Hansen said Interventional Pain Specialists treats about 4,000 patients and employs about 60 people.

The office performs about 50 different procedures, and roughly 10 percent of all procedures are of the “epidural variety,” he said.

The office’s philosophy is to perform procedures “to solve pain problems so (patients) are not so dependent on pain medication,” Hansen said.

He added he’s never been accused in this manner.

Other federal law enforcement agents did not return calls for comment.

I can’t remember the times that I have stated that “forcing” a pt to get ESI in order to get a Rx for oral opiates is a violation of a section of the Sherman Antitrust Act ( Tying Commerce) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tying_(commerce)      which basically states that forcing a customer to purchase something that they don’t want in order to be able to purchase something that they do want.

The medication typically used in ESI’s is Depo-Medrol (Methylprednisolone) is NOT RECOMMENDED for use in ESI’s by both the FDA and  Pfizer. So one can come to the conclusion that giving ESI’s with this medication is NOT MEDICALLY NECESSARY/APPROPRIATE..  Thus – in theory – any physician giving a pt ESI’s using this medication could be guilty of INSURANCE FRAUD..

 

21 Responses

  1. […] Doctor would not give individuals their pain medication … unless they capitulated in having an epi… […]

  2. […] is a law firm in Northern KY that is suing a large pain clinic over such practices https://www.pharmaciststeve.com/?p=28739        Doctor would not give individuals their pain medication … unless they capitulated in […]

  3. Isn’t this similar to California pharmacists telling people they have to purchase Narcan or they won’t fill their pain meds. Need to review Sherman Antitrust Act again as well as RICO and Stark Law violations.

  4. I now wonder if it was more than steroids in the injections.

    It should have been that his NP wasn’t allowed in in the same room with me without another person present.

  5. I wonder when they’re going after Dr. Mitchell Simons. He practices in Northern Ky and southwestern Oh. He did the same thing.

    His office was filthy. Month after month I would see the same black plastic trash can with a big hole burned in the side of i t. They wouldn’t even spend $10. to buy a new one. He wasn’t allowed to be in an exam room with a female unless there was a female staff member in the room. My husband always took something to sit on so He didn’t have to sit in a filthy chair.

    He did the procedures in a dirty storage closet with boxes stacked to the ceiling. I think he deliberately made the injections as painful as possible. I would scream through them even with an extra pain pill and a valium that he would prescribe. I never had even one drug test but I bet he billed my insurance company.

    I always expected to see the DEA carrying boxes out every time I pulled into the parking lot.

    Horrible doctor.

  6. Coercion by the Drill Mills. Never again.

  7. Oooooooo!!!! The experience above mirrors mine EXACTLY!! Dance, fool, dance. Each state should file a class action!

  8. Steve , I am seeing more lawsuits in this past year than I have in the past 15
    Is the tide beginning to turn in the pain patients favor ???

  9. I disagree with several commenters: it’s freaking EXTORTION! Criminal extortion, given the high rate of really, really bad outcomes of the procedure…like paralysis, permanent intolerable pain (which of course they’ll refuse to treat), etc.

  10. I don’t believe that this is a fluke. I was with Interventional pain management , in Florida. This is standard practice for them. I had also had the epidural injections, many times in the past. But, they didn’t help! When I refused to get any more, I was given my prescriptions for my pain meds BUT, the meds I was then given were total crap, the bottom of the barrel, generics that should not have been allowed on the market , at all, due to hoe ineffective they were! ! I left that pain management group but, no matter which group u go with, they want u to get the injections because, that’s where they make their money. And because, if they don’t do a certain amount of them, the DEA comes down on them for being a “pill mill “!. No one cares about us anymore, the chronic pain patients. I recently had a doctor tell me, in confidence, that our gov is trying to rid our country completely, of pain meds. That they were just waiting for those of us who r dependant on pain meds, to die off! Shocking, right? But, totally believable. Sad… and disgusting.

  11. […] Doctor would not give individuals their pain medication … unless they capitulated in having an ep… […]

  12. You think another doctor would put up with the crap we patients are forced to? Hell no! Extortion 101!

  13. Pain patients are being blackmailed, plain and simple! Forced to sign contracts under duress and if we say anything we lose our meds that give us some QOL Forced to undergo procedures that do not work, this is all just wrong and the doctor is BIAS!!

  14. Injections don’t make patients get better.

    Steroid injections do cause bones to die though. I am having my third hip hop surgery on the 15th because the hip bone died.8 1/2 months ago. I’ve had 15 dislocations since the bone died.

    In the opinion of my surgeon the dying bone was caused by too many steroid injections.

  15. I also must add that pain management patients should not get an ESI due to the risk of having a manic/severe manic response due to the steroid in the injection. It could take days, weeks or months to fully recover. Discuss this with your mental health provider before and get a positive support group around you. Nothing is worth your mental stability.

    • I ABSOLUTELY get a manic episode with DEPO! It’s now on my Allergy list. I can tolerate salumedrol,. Don’t know what the difference is, but yeah, happens within 5 minutes of being given by IV for a lupus flare.

  16. This doctor is quoted saying ““We’re suspicious of people who only want medication and don’t want to get better. Whatever was said between me and the patient” was twisted, Hansen claimed.” Many people that I know personally have contracted adhesive arachnoiditis from these injections. This is bribery – plain and simple!

    • I always warn people about the risk of that if they say they are getting one done. They say but it is rare or but they are young or whatever. I was 21 when I had spinal surgery when I got adhesive arachnoiditis from it and it disabled me and has left me bed bound. It is a hell of a disease and I wish it on no one! My dad has to get epidurals for his back because drs refuse pain meds for him and I cringe and hope every time he doesn’t end up with the sa.e fate as myself.

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