Psychiatrist loses license - linked to 11 drug deaths

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A psychiatrist linked to 11 drug overdose deaths in Milwaukee and Waukesha counties has agreed to give up his medical license and repay the federal government $509,000 in overbilled charges to Medicare and Medicaid, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

Although there was a criminal investigation into Richard I.H. Wang's prescriptions for dangerous levels of addictive painkillers such as OxyContin, Percocet and Valium, he will not be criminally charged, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Jacobs.

"His principal problem was a failure to perform as a competent, current physician. It was a sin of omission rather than a sin of commission," Jacobs said. "He should have done more."

The civil resolution, finalized Friday after a three-year investigation, accomplishes the government's main goals: removing Wang from the practice of medicine and recovering the money he overbilled, Jacobs said.

Reached Friday, Wang, 82, said he wanted to retire anyway, and did so Wednesday. He had been banned by the state from prescribing drugs since 2004.

Wang, who practiced medicine in Wisconsin for 40 years and who once held key posts at the Medical College of Wisconsin and a local veterans hospital, has a history of complaints dating to 1993, records show. Burleigh Serv-U Pharmacy, which filled many of Wang's prescriptions, ordered more than 1,000% more of certain drugs from its supplier than others its size, court records show.

The pharmacist there said he had contacted state licensing officials 10 times since 1998 about whether he should continue to fill Wang's prescriptions and was told it was fine, according to the records.

Affidavits in support of search warrants for Wang's home and office, served in 2004, describe 11 drug overdose deaths, including six of Wang's patients. Authorities believe some of those patients and others were selling or sharing their medications with relatives and friends, five of whom also died. The deaths occurred between June 2000 and March 2004.

Wang said Friday that his patients were required to sign agreements not to sell or abuse their medications.

"Out of several hundred patients, there were a couple who didn't follow the rules and regulations. They should be the ones (prosecuted)," Wang said. "Instead, they say, 'Who did you get the medication from?' That's not right."

Jacobs, though, said having the patients sign forms wasn't enough. Wang should have been more diligent about recognizing drug-seeking behavior, perhaps doing urine screenings of his patients, Jacobs said.

"There was a failure for him to recognize some of the red flags," Jacobs said.

However, Wang did not sell prescriptions to non-patients and did not charge exorbitant fees to patients who were prescribed painkillers, Jacobs said. Also, some of his patients died from combining prescription drugs with illegal ones such as heroin. All those factors would have made a criminal prosecution difficult, Jacobs said.

Sandy Folaron, whose son J.R. committed suicide in 2004 after being treated by Wang for pain associated with a knee injury, said she would have liked to see Wang go to prison but was satisfied that he didn't get off scot-free.

"I still felt that what he had done and lives he had destroyed, he had to have his license revoked," she said.

At one point, Wang was prescribing between 300 and 400 pills to J.R. each month, Folaron said. By the time Wang lost his ability to prescribe drugs, J.R. was addicted, and the doctor did nothing to help him, she said. With the painkillers cut off, J.R. started using heroin. Within a month, he had killed himself.

"He was a young wonderful man, our son, who had such a future, who fell, and fell hard," she said. "He's just one of many."

As for the overbilling, authorities say Wang submitted $509,000 worth of improper bills to Medicare and Medicaid. Wang generally spent very small amounts of time with each patient, yet submitted bills indicating complex visits that lasted 40 minutes or more, according to court documents.

Wang said he had hired someone to calculate his invoices for the federal programs and he merely signed them. As part of the settlement agreement, he agreed to repay the money anyway.

Wang served as chief of clinical pharmacology at the Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center from 1964 to 1992. He simultaneously was on the faculty of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa full time from 1963 to 1987 and part time after that until 1996, when he retired from the college.