According to court documents, between January 2014 and October 2019, family physician David Chisholm, MD, 64, of Wasilla, Alaska, wrote more than 20,000 prescriptions to approximately 350 patients for oxycodone, methadone, and hydrocodone, often prescribing the pills using variations of patients’ names in an attempt to avoid being red-flagged by payers.
When Walmart refused to continue filling the prescriptions, Dr. Chisholm told his staff to advise the patients to use other pharmacies. In addition, he often prescribed combinations of medications, such as concurrent opioids, benzodiazepines, sedatives, and carisoprodol, thus increasing the chances that his patients would become addicted to or overdose on the drugs. Chisholm, who pleaded guilty in June, acknowledged to federal officials that his prescriptions were a significant contributing factor to the overdose deaths of five of his patients during this time, according to a statement by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska.
According to the Anchorage Daily News, Dr. Chisholm, who was not board certified in pain medicine, said his reason for prescribing the drugs was not to make money but to help patients suffering from chronic pain and because he enjoyed the challenge.
Dr. Chisholm’s attorney, Nick Oberheiden, told CNN his client “sacrificed his reputation as a patient advocate and his years of service to the Alaskan community” in overprescribing opioids. “He expressed his sincere remorse in open court and he accepts the consequences of his misconduct. He hopes that his case serves as a warning to other physicians facing the same dilemma when treating chronic pain.”
He surrendered his medical license in November 2020 before being formally charged in April 2021.
Texas hospital CEO, seven doctors settle kickback
A hospital executive and seven physicians have agreed to pay a total of $1.1 million to settle allegations that they violated the Anti-Kickback Statute and Stark Law. The eight have also agreed to cooperate in investigations and litigation involving other parties.
The Texas physicians involved in the settlement are internist Jaspaul Bhangoo, MD, of Denton; family physician Robert Megna, DO, of Ferris; cardiologist Baxter Montgomery, MD, of Houston; internist Murtaza Mussaji, DO, of Houston; family physician David Sneed, DO, of Austin; family physician Kevin Lewis, DO, of Houston; and family physician Angela Mosley-Nunnery, MD, of Kingwood.
Also settling was Richard DeFoore, former CEO of Jones County Regional Healthcare (dba Stamford Memorial Hospital).
The physicians were accused of accepting payments from organizations in exchange for ordering lab tests from True Health Diagnostics, Little River Healthcare, and Boston Heart. The payments to the physicians were disguised as investment returns but, according to the allegations, were in fact offered in exchange for the doctors’ referrals. Mr. DeFoore, the hospital executive involved in the settlement, allegedly oversaw a similar scheme that benefited the now-defunct Stamford Memorial.
“Paying kickbacks to physicians distorts the medical decision-making process, corrupts our health care system, and increases the cost of healthcare funded by the taxpayer,” Brit Featherston, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, said in a statement announcing the agreement. “Laboratories, marketers, and physicians cannot immunize their conduct by attempting to disguise the kickbacks as some sort of investment arrangement.”