VA doctor arrested in Danville for overdose deaths of 3 patients in Indiana

Via this report

A VA doctor was arrested in Danville Thursday morning for reckless homicide charges filed by prosecutors in Indiana.

The criminal counts announced Friday by the Marion County prosecutor's office charge that Dr. John Sturman overprescribed narcotics for pain that resulted in the deaths. The patients died in 2010 and 2011, but aren't identified in court records.

Danville police confirmed today that Sturman was a doctor at the Veterans Affairs Illiana Health Care System and was arrested on the warrant at the VA. According to U.S. News and World Report, Sturman was a neurologist in Danville at the Veterans Affairs Illiana Health Care System. He has been in practice for 44 years.

The prosecutor's office says Sturman was jailed in Danville, Illinois, pending extradition to Indianapolis. It wasn't immediately clear whether Sturman has an attorney.

The prosecutor's office says Sturman operated a clinic at Indiana University Hospital in Indianapolis, but lost his admitting privileges in 2012 after he failed to complete medical charting and documentation of patient visits.

Sturman also faces 16 counts of improperly prescribing drugs.

My son died in a mental health facility. If we keep protecting dangerous hospitals, he won’t be the last.

From the Washington Post. Full article at the link

On Nov. 23, I received the call no parent wants to get – my only son was dead. My beautiful, 24-year-old boy was gone. It is a nightmare I have yet to wake up from; one I will never wake up from.

I could barely hear the words from the other end of the line; my cries were drowning them out. I was driving when I received the call, and had to pull over to call my son’s father. Then I had to drive home to deliver the news to my daughter, Paris. How I made it home without getting in a wreck is a mystery to me.

Two-and-a-half months prior, my ex-husband, Kristoff St. John, and I had placed our son, Julian, at Telecare’s La Casa Mental Health Rehabilitation Center in Long Beach, Calif. on a 72-hour involuntary psychiatric hold. Julian had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia when he was 17 and had become suicidal while off his medication and on a powerful substance – meth. The staff upgraded him to a 14-day hold, and then lengthened it again for an indefinite period, to give him adequate time to get off of meth.

Like many parents of children with mental health issues, our goal was to find help for our son who suffers from a horrific illness for which there is no cure. We knew that, with proper medication and therapy, Julian had a chance of living a comfortable life. So we sought help from Los Angeles County’s Department of Mental Health, which referred us to Telecare’s facility. The county says it pays Telecare $17 million per year to contract 190 beds at La Casa. We had hoped that the facility would help him withdraw from meth and get back on his meds, and that within the year, Julian would come home – alive.

But we made a fatal mistake placing our son in the care of La Casa, one of many mental health facilities in this country that contracts with state and local governments. Like many before him, Julian didn’t make it out alive.

Of course, the problem is that these people are trusted to do things the are not capable of doing.

Paul Corona, 'Guru' doctor of mood-stabilizing drugs on probation for second time

From the Orange County Register

A doctor who described himself in an Orange County Register investigation as the “guru” of mood-stabilizing drugs has been put on probation for the second time by state medical regulators.

The Medical Board of California put Laguna Niguel physician Paul Corona on a five-year probation Friday for gross negligence in treating five patients and failing to maintain adequate medical records. He was also put on probation in 2009 after suffering a psychotic breakdown.

Corona, who described himself to the Register as the most prolific prescriber of mood-stabilizing drugs anywhere, is prohibited from supervising physician assistants during his probation.

Jodi Barber, whose son, Jarrod, overdosed in 2010 on a mixture of drugs, some prescribed by Corona, said the state was too lenient. “This is ridiculous. Remove his license permanently. How many slaps on the hand is he going to be given?” said Barber of Laguna Niguel. Her son did not appear to be one of the victims in the state complaint.

Corona was the subject of a 2011 investigation by the Register into how doctors overprescribed to teens, fueling a rise in Orange County overdoses. Coroner records show accidental fatal overdoses have risen steadily from 130 in 2003 to 291 in 2013. Corona preached the use of psychotropic drugs to remove the mental traumas that feed drug addiction.

“I am the top prescriber of psychotropic medications around,” Corona said. “Ninety-five percent of my patients are very happy.”

But drug addiction experts questioned Corona’s tactics, saying it didn’t make sense to use drugs to fight drugs. Dr. Harry Haroutunian, physician director at the famed Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, told the Register in 2011 it is especially dangerous to prescribe drugs with sedative qualities when treating addicts in an outpatient setting, where they might score more drugs on the street.

“If he is telling you he is the highest prescriber,” Haroutunian said, “that would be a dubious distinction by my measuring stick.”

Corona first came under the state’s attention after Orange County sheriff’s deputies were sent to his Laguna Niguel home in 2007 to investigate reports of a man having a psychotic breakdown and threatening suicide, according to a medical board accusation.

“Respondent was acting bizarre and was very aggressive, yelling and screaming incoherently. The officers had to taser respondent several times in order to subdue him,” said the report by the medical board. Corona was hospitalized for nearly a month for psychological observation.

It was the same year that he published a book about treating mood disorders, entitled “Healing the Mind and Body.” In a 2008 interview with the medical board, Corona said he suffered an episode of hypomania three years prior. State documents say that he was prescribed Seroquel by his psychiatrist, but he admitted to self-medicating from his sample drugs after his psychiatrist moved away.

“His disorder has impacted his ability to practice safely and led to his hospitalization for a psychotic breakdown,” the state complaint said. He was put under suspension for five years in June 2009.

Under the latest probation, Corona must take courses in prescribing practices, medical record keeping, medical ethics and clinical education. He must also find another physician to monitor him, according to medical board documents.

Riverside psychiatrist pleads not guilty in Medicare scheme

Report from the Houston Chronicle

A Houston psychiatrist who was indicted separately in the Riverside General Hospital $160 million Medicare billing fraud scheme pleaded not guilty on Friday and intends to stand trial in August.

Dr. Sharon Iglehart is accused of one federal conspiracy count, two health care fraud charges and a pair of allegations that she made false statements to investigators. At a pretrial conference before U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein, her lawyers - which include high-powered defense attorney Rusty Hardin - said she is ready to face a jury. Iglehart originally was arrested in December 2013, but the allegations have been amended twice since then - growing from nine to 12 pages in the most recent indictment secured from a federal grand jury and filed on July 21. Iglehart pleaded not guilty to the amended five counts and retained her freedom on $50,000 bail.

Former Riverside CEO and president Earnest Gibson III was convicted as the ringleader in three conspiracies involving Medicare billings for Riverside's psychiatric treatment programs from 2005 to 2012 in which patients were ineligible for treatment or were warehoused but did not receive the reported care. The government alleged that $31 million in fraudulent reimbursement requests were paid. His son, former group home owner Earnest Gibson IV was also convicted at trial and sentenced to 20 years.

The elder Gibson received the heaviest punishment so far: 45 years. His second-in-command, Mohammad Khan, received a 40-year sentence. They received some of the nation's longest sentences for health care fraud - particularly, stealing from the Medicare or Medicaid programs, which is one of the top criminal prosecutorial priorities for the U.S. Justice Department.

Through her Iglehart Wellness Center, the psychiatrist allegedly participated in the scheme by submitting claims that falsely indicated she provided intensive outpatient services for severe mental illness through Riverside's treatment program. Iglehart retains an active medical license in Texas. She was reprimanded by the Texas Medical Board in 2009 for "recreating medical records for psychiatric patients significantly later than the time she had provided examination, diagnosis and treatment to the patients," according to the agency's website. Her disciplinary status was cleared in 2011.

Jury selection in Iglehart's case is set for Aug. 31. If convicted, the doctor faces up to 10 years in prison on each count. Regina Askew, who rose from a case worker to become an auditor, will spend 12 years in prison.

In July, Sharonda Holmes, who was involved in paying and receiving kickbacks, was sentenced to 3½ years and Waddie McDuffie became the sixth person to receive prison time in the scam that crippled Riverside. The historic Third Ward institution began as Houston's first hospital for black patients and became one of the state's largest providers of substance abuse and mental health treatment. McDuffie pleaded guilty to delivering kickback money to group home owners in exchange for them sending patients for mental health treatment at the hospital. He received a five-year term of probation and six months of home confinement. Those who have pleaded guilty or were convicted at trial are among the dozen defendants who are jointly responsible for $46 million in restitution.

All of the Riverside cases are being prosecuted by Washington-based lawyers assigned to the Justice Department's criminal fraud division.

Notorious Psych Ward at Miami-Dade Jail Finally Shuttered

From this report in the Prison Legal News Website

In a historic culmination to decades of “horrific” living conditions and a pattern of constitutional violations, the Miami-Dade County Jail in Florida has finally closed the “Forgotten Floor” – the notorious ninth floor at the facility that was used to house mentally ill prisoners, often for months and years at a time, with levels of care so abysmal that prisoners routinely died.

“It is thrilling on one level but kind of sad that it has taken so long,” said Miami-Dade Judge Steve Leifman of the December 23, 2014 closure of the jail’s ninth floor. “A lot of people have been hurt or died up there.” Leifman, as chair of the 11th Circuit Mental Health Project, has been a long-time advocate for the mentally ill.

In 2013 alone, three mentally ill prisoners housed on the ninth floor died. On August 26, Joseph Wilner, 59, was found “unresponsive” in his cell; jailed for driving on a suspended license, he was in the unit reserved for the most acute mental cases.

In July 2013, Leifman was informed of the death of wheelchair-bound prisoner Joaquin Cairo. An employee with the jail’s diversion program told the court that Cairo said “someone propositioned him while in custody and when [he] declined they threw him against the bed and against the floor.” Cairo suffered a broken pelvis and died from internal bleeding.

“The neglect was despicable. Despicable,” Leifman said. “He should have been taken to a hospital immediately, and there is absolutely no excuse.”

Three months earlier another psych ward patient, Juan Matos-Flores, who was considered a suicide risk, died after jailers found him unresponsive on the floor of his cell. When staff tried to call 911 they were unable to do so because the phones on the ninth floor were programmed to block outgoing calls. Instead, employees were forced to call another floor to get help.

“It’s a floor that is specifically designed for people who are ill. It’s absurd,” Leifman said after learning of the telephone debacle.

When the ninth floor at the Miami-Dade County Jail closed, some 400 prisoners were transferred to six newly-refurbished wings at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where the telephones allow 911 calls and cameras monitor prisoners in every cell.

[...]

The Miami-Dade County Jail, the nation’s eighth-largest, has been under federal monitoring since the U.S. Department of Justice concluded a three-year investigation in 2011 that found a “pattern and practice in constitutional violations” of prisoners’ rights due to deplorable living conditions.

Leifman was more blunt, calling conditions on the Forgotten Floor “horrific.”

“It was not built to be a psychiatric facility. It was built as a jail [with a cell] for one person, and here two and three people [were placed] in there that are very psychotic,” he said.

The public got its first glimpse of the infamous floor in 2006 when Leifman invited a television reporter and camera crew to document conditions as he guided a tour. “Human beings should not be treated like this. No blankets, no beds, no mattresses. We sleep on the floor,” one prisoner told CBS4 chief investigative reporter Michele Gillen, who found the faucets in cells were not working and prisoners were drinking water from the toilets. Leifman credited Gillen’s reporting with stirring public outrage which, in turn, prompted action.

“We have finally closed the ninth floor, thanks to you,” Leifman told Gillen in an interview. “I don’t think the public ever would have understood how horrendous the situation was, but for your reporting. And it led to where we are today.”

Anchorage Doctor Sentenced to 3 ½ years for Fraudulently Billing Medicaid and Tampering with Physical Evidence

State of Alaska Press Release here

The Alaska Department of Law, Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, announced today that 40-year-old Dr. Shubhranjan Ghosh was sentenced to 3 ½ years of active incarceration. Dr. Ghosh pled guilty to Medical Assistance Fraud and Tampering With Physical Evidence, which he committed between 2010 and 2013 at his practice, Ghosh Psychiatric Services.

Judge Philip Volland also ordered Dr. Ghosh to repay $605,000 in restitution to Medicaid. After release, Dr. Ghosh will be on probation for 10 years, and there will be 3 ½ years jail time that the Court could impose if he violates probation. Dr. Ghosh was remanded to custody at sentencing today. The Medical Board will decide the future of Dr. Ghosh’s medical license.

In court papers, Assistant Attorney General Jonas Walker argued that Dr. Ghosh “is a con artist who happens to hold a medical license.” The State presented evidence at sentencing, including a video showing Dr. Ghosh urging an employee to sign false affidavits stating that medical services were provided when, in fact, they were not.

Judge Volland remarked the community should be “shocked” by Dr. Ghosh’s “unconscionable and unacceptable” crimes of “poaching” money from a program designed to provide medical care to a particularly vulnerable population.

The case was initiated by citizen complaint and jointly investigated by the Alaska Department of Law, Alaska State Troopers, Anchorage Police Department, Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations. Mr. Walker emphasized that this case is a great example of how state and federal collaboration can work to combat fraud and abuse in the Medicaid system.

The Alaska MFCU is part of the Attorney General’s Office. The MFCU is responsible for investigating and prosecuting Medicaid fraud and abuse, neglect or financial exploitations of patients in any facility that accepts Medicaid funds.

The information filed in the Ghosh complaint can be found on the MFCU website.

Timberlawn mental hospital cut off from federal funding over safety issues

From a much long report in the Dallas News

Federal regulators are taking the rare step of kicking one of North Texas’ largest psychiatric hospitals out of the Medicare and Medicaid programs for leaving patients in “immediate jeopardy” of injury or death.

[...]

Timberlawn flunked a make-or-break inspection, a final chance to prove it could fix an array of problems after promising improvements for months.

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services found that unlicensed personnel were monitoring patients and some patients were going more than 12 hours without seeing a nurse. Electrical cords and other unsafe objects remained in rooms within reach of suicidal patients.

“These practices posed an immediate jeopardy to the health and safety of patients,” inspectors said in a report.

The state said it is moving quickly to evaluate its enforcement options.

“The issues have been egregious and incredibly disheartening. We are absolutely looking at the full range of penalties, including license revocation,” said Carrie Williams, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services. “Our inspectors have been in and out of the facility since February, citing issues and not seeing progress. It’s turned into a critical situation.”

Much more information at the link, which includes hand wringing over what they will do when a dangerous and unsafe facility is shut down.

Poor treatment at Lehigh Valley mental health clinics was evident, patients say

From a longer report in the Lehigh Valley Live website

Photo caption:Lehigh Valley Community Mental Health Centers Inc. at 226 Northampton St., Easton, is seen July 20, 2015. It is one of 10 mental health clinics sued July 20, 2015, by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, along with owner Melissa Chlebowski and Melchor Martinez. Martinez is alleged to have run the Medicare- and Medicaid-funded clinics in Easton, Bethlehem, Allentown, Philadelphia and Raleigh, North Carolina, despite a 2000 ruling excluding him from participating in these and any federally funded health care programs.

Director Allison E. Frantz said the department received complaints about the delivery of care at Lehigh Valley Community Mental Health Centers Inc., now the target of a federal whistleblower lawsuit. The department forwarded the complaints, prompting an investigation, she said.

"The Northampton County DHS has taken steps to ensure the county's citizens' behavioral health treatment would not be jeopardized: the provider network was enhanced to include additional bi-cultural, bilingual treatment professionals and regular and frequent on-site clinical reviews, including additional billing audits," Frantz wrote in an email Tuesday.

After the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced the lawsuit Monday, patients were left with myriad questions about the care they had received and whether the five local centers in Easton, Bethlehem and Allentown would remain open.

The suit also targets the centers' owner, Melissa Chlebowski, and her husband, Melchor Martinez, both of Allentown, as well as four sister mental health centers in Philadelphia and one in North Carolina.

[...]

The suit alleges the mental health clinics used unqualified stand-ins for psychiatrists and rushed patients through "medication management" visits. Federal prosecutors also say the centers were really run by Martinez, despite being prohibited since 2000 from participating in Medicaid, Medicare or any federally funded health care programs.

The civil action seeks damages and penalties.

[...]

The Hoffman Report: The Investigation into the American Psychological Association (APA)

The Hoffman Report is the informal name for the 2015 investigation into the American Psychological Association’s (APA) practices regarding its relaxing of ethical standards for psychologists involved in torture interrogations. The full name for the report is, Independent Review Relating to APA Ethics Guidelines, National Security Interrogations, and Torture. It was authored by attorneys David Hoffman, Danielle Carter, Cara Viglucci Lopez, Heather Benzmiller, Ava Guo, Yasir Latifi and Daniel Craig of the law firm, Sidley Austin, LLP.

It was an extensive investigation spanning 6 months that reviewed over 50,000 documents and conducted over 200 interviews with 148 people.

The report notes that,

“Although most individuals were quite cooperative and willing to meet with us, that sentiment was not universal, and there were several individuals who declined to meet with us or did not respond to our requests.”

Also,

“This inquiry is made more difficult by the amount of time that has elapsed since the important events occurred. The key events relating to the APA task force report occurred 10 to 11 years ago, and the events relating to the ethics code revision occurred 13 to 19 years ago.”

The independent investigation resulted in a 542-page final report. It is available for download here

Independent Review Relating to APA Ethics Guidelines, National Security Interrogations, and Torture (PDF)

Another ethics scandal for the University of Minnesota Dept. of Psychiatry

From a Report on Fox 9 News Video available at the link

The University of Minnesota has another ethics scandal on its hands. And once again it involves the Department of Psychiatry. This latest case of research misconduct involves falsifying records.

Dr. Ken Winters is a Psychologist who has worked at the U of M for 26 years. He was about to begin a new study for the National Institute on Drug Abuse on ways to stop teenagers from taking drugs, but before proceeding, a University review board wanted Winters to get something in writing from the federal government.

It would have been a legal document that would protect researchers from having to disclose confidential information about study participants should those participants ever get into trouble with the law. Winters told the Fox 9 Investigators he got tired of waiting for the paperwork to arrive so he falsified his own version and turned it in to the University so the study could begin.

He declined an on camera interview but agreed to have his voice recorded.

"Poor judgement on my part," Winters said. "It was a terrible thing I did, so I have no real explanation. I've got no defense. My own stupidity, poor judgement."

Winters also said within hours of turning in the phony documents, he fessed up after being approached by concerned staff members. His misconduct is yet another slam for the school's Department of Psychiatry.

Earlier this spring, a legislative audit, prompted by a Fox 9 Investigation, found serious ethical concerns and conflicts of interest relating to the death of a research participant in a Psych Department drug trial.

"It is a serious ethical breach. It is another indication that there are issues and problems in the drug trials at the University Department of Psychiatry that need attention," Legislative Auditor Jim Nobles said.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse told the Fox 9 Investigators "it takes allegations of research misconduct seriously." But wouldn't comment on what, if anything, it’s doing about this case.

Winters said he hasn't been disciplined by the University for falsifying the document. Instead, he was given the option to retire at the end of the month.

Former Psychiatrist Sentenced for Child Sex Crimes

A Report from WNEP

Michael Kessler was sentenced to state prison Friday for trying to lure a 13-year-old boy to meet him for sex back in 2013.

“Michael, why did you tell the court you're sorry? Are you sorry you got caught? Or are you sorry you did it?" Newswatch 16 asked Kessler. He had no response.

Former psychiatrist Michael Kessler of Cresco is headed to a state prison after his sentencing in Monroe County Court. Kessler admits trying to lure a 13-year-old by to meet him and engage in sexual activity, sending him child porn and more. The boy’s mother says she’s glad Kessler will be behind bars.

"It caused a lot of anxiety not knowing and knowing that he knew where I lived and was my friend and he targeted my son,” said the boy’s mother Janet VanHorn.

That mother says she monitors her children’s phones and Facebook accounts. Two years ago she caught Kessler posing online as a 14-year old boy and turned the case over to Monroe County Detectives.

"She paid attention. She caught it early. She was on top of things and she took the right steps,” said Detective Brian Webbe of the Monroe County Detective Office.

Kessler worked at Pocono Psychiatric Associates near Marshalls Creek before his license was revoked in 2012. Prosecutors say Kessler was arrested four other times for sexual incidents in Massachusetts and New Jersey without facing jail time.

"It makes you angry because all these years he thought he was above the law. It made me want to fight even harder to make sure he faced punishment,” said VanHorn.

Now Kessler faces a year and a half to five years behind bars. And this mother of two has a message for other parents after a long tough two years waiting for justice.

“Parents need to be aware that they need to keep up on your social media you need to check your kids' phones and their Facebook. You need to be on top of it all because if you're not, Lord knows what could have happened,” said VanHorn.

State of Conneticut Reaches False Claims Act Settlement with Providers at Children's Behavioral Health Clinic

From this Conneticut Attorney General Press Release.

A social worker and a doctor will pay a total of $120,000 to Connecticut's Medical Assistance Program (CMAP) through settlement agreements that resolve civil allegations involving the filing of false and fraudulent claims for payments at a Branford-based outpatient behavioral health clinic for children, Attorney General George Jepsen said today.

The state alleged that David M. Meyers, a licensed clinical social worker and former president of Cornerstones P.C., located in Branford, hired Dr. W. Blake Taggart to be the medical director of Cornerstones through an independent contractor agreement. Cornerstones' provider agreement with the state Department of Social Services (DSS) for participation in CMAP – which is the state's Medicaid program – required that the clinic comply with all applicable regulations. The state Department of Children and Families (DCF), which licenses and regulates outpatient psychiatric clinics for children, required Cornerstones to have a medical director. As part of Meyers' effort to maintain his clinic's enrollment in the CMAP beginning in January 2010, the DSS required an updated letter representing that Cornerstones continued to have a medical director overseeing care.

The state alleged that Dr. Taggart resigned as the clinic's medical director in September 2009, but two months later Meyers falsely stated in the letter to DSS that Dr. Taggart remained as the clinic's medical director. The state alleged that Dr. Taggart facilitated this misrepresentation by signing the false, back dated letter to DSS.

[...]

Recruitment for Psychiatric Treatment Trials: An Ethical Investigation

Abstract of the Report (Paid Access for full article)

This article is about ethics, specifically, the myriad of unethical practices characterizing recruitment for psychiatric trials.

Using a case study approach, honing on recruitment material, and examining the typical, the author explores recruitment in two studies—one involving electroconvulsive therapy, the other, a psychiatric drug. The bulk of the article is on these trials.

The ethical problems which surface include

• minimization of risk;
• euphemism;
• lack of transparency;
• false and misleading claims,
• unfair inducement;
• failure to mention most of the common and serious negative effects;
• and a predatory quality.

The author also identifies some worrisome new trends. Of special interest to the humanistic counselor is the attempt to implicate people’s own counselors and therapists in recruitment.

The article ends with reflections on the onus that such practices place on all practitioners striving to be ethical.

The author concludes that it is critical that counselors and therapists not be complicit and beyond that they take it on themselves to confront and expose. Concrete practice suggestions include adopting an explicit policy against such referrals, alerting any clients who may be considering such trials of the danger, and countering false claims.

A Queensbury psychiatrist had his medical license suspended for 6 months for allegations of “gross incompetence” and “moral unfitness.”

As seen in the Post Star oif Warren County in Australia

A Queensbury psychiatrist had his medical license suspended for 6 months last week after the state Department of Health brought a disciplinary case against him for allegations of “gross incompetence” and “moral unfitness.”

Dr. Koock E. Jung, who operates Psychotherapy Center on Bay Road in Queensbury, will also spend 3 years on probation after the suspension is lifted, according to the Department of Health. The suspension takes effect June 29.

The Department of Health website showed Jung admitted he “could not successfully defend against” at least one of a group of charges that included allegations he committed “gross negligence gross incompetence negligence on more than one occasion incompetence; on more than one occasion harassing, abusing or intimidating a patient physically or verbally; engaging in moral unfitness; failing to maintain accurate patient records; and revealing personally identifiable facts, data or information without the prior consent of the patient.”

Among the allegations was inappropriate physical contact with female patients and prescription of medications that were beyond his licensing ability, according to one woman who made a complaint against Jung. Jung denied the accusations Tuesday and said he did not admit any wrongdoing related to sexual contact. He said any physical contact he had with patients was for legitimate medical or examination purposes. He blamed the case on a group of disgruntled former employees, one of whom he had remove her shirt so he could examine her for pneumonia. He said some of them told “lies” because they were angry about a “pay scale” dispute.

Other patients wrongly interpreted examinations he did to check their hearts for problems related to medication they were prescribed, he said. “Some of these women sexualize anything,” he said.

The prescription charge related to prescribing Xanax to a person with “serious anxiety,” Jung said.

He said he suffers from Lyme disease that has limited the use of his hands, so he may decide to retire instead of getting his medical license reinstated. Jung accepted the state’s disciplinary action instead of facing an evidentiary hearing that could have led to him losing his medical license. The hearing was scheduled for last week, and the notice of discipline was posted Monday.

A Queensbury woman was among the dozen or so women, many of them victims of sexual abuse, who sought help from Jung. She said they were prepared to testify at the disciplinary hearing last week. She spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the nature of the allegations. She said Jung engaged in “inappropriate touching” and inappropriate conversations with her and others with whom she discussed the case.

Nebraska state shrinks still double-dipping, a decade after vow to end the practice

From a report from the Nebraska Watchdog. Another case of getting paid for more than what they do.

Nearly a decade ago, the new head of the state psychiatric hospital promised change to the Lincoln Regional Center after lawmakers discovered most of the psychiatrists had other jobs. Some were double-dipping — working at the state psychiatric hospital and county mental health center — while others were triple- and quadruple-dipping. But, 10 years later, Nebraska Watchdog has found little has changed.

Take Dr. Sanat Roy: He’s a psychiatrist at the Mental Health Crisis Center of Lancaster County, contract psychiatrist at the Lincoln Regional Center and has a private practice at Plaza West Psychiatrists. He’s also listed as the medical director for Blue Valley Behavioral Health, a Beatrice nonprofit that serves 16 counties in southeast Nebraska.

Scott Etherton, program director for the county’s mental health center, said Roy works part-time and is on call 24/7. He gets $160,000 annually plus nearly $30,000 in benefits. Roy is on a contract with the state, earning more than $125 per hour for up to 1,664 hours per year (32 hours per week) or $210,266 per year.

[...]

Another psychiatrist, Dr. Klaus Hartmann, works full-time for the Regional Center, earning $243,884 annually — the highest state salary. He’s also listed as a psychiatrist for Bryan LGH and fills in for Roy when he’s on leave, according to Etherton.

A third psychiatrist working a second job is Dr. Rafael Tatay, a full-time psychiatrist at the Regional Center who makes $237,597 annually. He also is listed as a psychiatrist at Plaza West Psychiatrists.

After getting complaints for years that Regional Center psychiatrists weren’t putting in 40 hours a week, a 2005 performance audit by the Legislature found most Regional Center psychiatrists had other jobs that had them putting in upwards of 80 hours per week. The audit report didn’t say whether the psychiatrists were still able to properly do their jobs, despite holding down multiple positions. After the report came out, the new head of the Regional Center at the time, Bill Gibson, said he would work to end the double-dipping.

Back then, Roy and Hartmann were making about $330,000 annually working for the state and county, with jobs that required them to put in more than 65 hours per week, plus private practices. They’d been doing it for two decades [...] “It has been standard practice. I don’t think it has been detrimental to patient care. But it is not what I envision for the future,” he said in 2005.

Psychiatrists are among the highest paid state employees — with eight of them cracking the top 15 highest paid state employees

[...]

Psychiatrist who practiced in Nashua allegedly used fake prescription to get drugs

Report from the Union Leader

A Nashua psychiatrist has been arrested by state narcotics investigators and charged with using a bogus prescription to obtain a scheduled drug, N.H. State Police said.

Robert C. Vidaver, 50, of Henniker, was arrested by Henniker police, according to a statement issued Tuesday by the Narcotics and Investigations Unit of the state police.

State police said the arrest followed a four-week investigation, which started after the NIU’s Drug Diversion Section received a complaint about Vidaver.

He is charged with obtaining a controlled drug by fraud.

According to an online listing at the New Hampshire Board of Medicine, Vidaver is a psychiatrist who works at Harbor Homes, a Nashua organization that provides housing, health care, employment, job training and supportive services to the poor and disabled.

Vidaver’s license was issued in 2007 and is set to expire on June 30.

After his arrest, Vidaver was released on his own recognizance. He is scheduled to appear in Hillsborough District Court on July 28.

During A Raid on A Psych Hospital, The FBI has a hard time getting Pizza Delivery

Although everyone thinks of this as a joke, it has been verified by Snopes as a real event

FBI agents conducted a "search and seizure" at the Southwood Psychiatric Hospital in San Diego, which was under investigation for medical insurance fraud. After hours of poring over many rooms of financial records, some sixty FBI agents worked up quite an appetite. The case agent in charge of the investigation called a local pizza parlor with delivery service to order a quick dinner for his colleagues.

The following telephone conversation took place:

Agent: Hello. I would like to order nineteen large pizzas and sixty-seven cans of soda.
Pizza man: And where would you like them delivered?
Agent: To the Southwood Psychiatric Hospital.
Pizza man: To the psychiatric hospital?
Agent: That's right. I'm an FBI agent.
Pizza man: You're an FBI agent?
Agent: That's correct. Just about everybody here is.
Pizza man: And you're at the psychiatric hospital?
Agent: That's correct. And make sure you don't go through the front doors. We have them locked. You'll have to go around to the back to the service entrance to deliver the pizzas.
Pizza man: And you say you're all FBI agents?
Agent: That's right. How soon can you have them here?
Pizza man: And you're over at Southwood?
Agent: That's right. How soon can you have them here?
Pizza man: And everyone at Southwood is an FBI agent?
Agent: That's right. We've been here all day and we're starving.
Pizza man: How are you going to pay for this?
Agent: I have my check book right here.
Pizza man: And you are all FBI agents?
Agent: That's right, everyone here is an FBI agent. Can you remember to bring the pizzas and sodas to the service entrance in the rear? We have the front doors locked.
Pizza man: I don't think so.

Click.

As Snopes explains:

Origins: The above-quoted tale about FBI agents trying to arrange for pizza delivery to a psychiatric hospital is one of those pieces that serves to remind us that no matter how bizarre, far-fetched, or incredible a story may seem at first glance, it should never be entirely discounted without at least some effort being made to verify it.

This anecdote began circulating on the Internet in 1995, often attributed to a "Center for Strategic and International Studies report on GLOBAL ORGANIZED CRIME" or "a talk by R. James Woolsey, Director of Central Intelligence, given at a conference on global organized crime." We initially reproduced it on our site with no judgment as to its truth or falsity, expecting that it would eventually be revealed as a work of creative fiction by some Internet prankster. To be thorough, we sent a routine inquiry to the FBI's San Diego office about the story and then promptly forgot about it, assuming that the FBI had much better things to do than spend their time debunking silly tales spread via e-mail.

We were quite surprised, therefore, when several weeks later we received a response from FBI Special Agent Wayne A. Barnes, who confirmed for us that the incident described was real and supplied us with additional background detail about it.

In 1993, the FBI was assisting the Department of Health and Human Services in investigating health care fraud. A medical organization that operated psychiatric hospitals in nine different cities had come under suspicion, and law enforcement agencies had scheduled coordinated raids on all nine of those facilities to take place on the same day (so that none of the hospitals could alert the others). The unexpectedly high volume of records seized in a morning raid on the Southwood Psychiatric Hospital in Chula Vista, California, meant that the investigation there turned into an all-day affair. When the agent in charge of the operation realized his men were running on empty after long hours with no food, he attempted to order pizza from a local delivery outfit, placing the call now immortalized in this piece. Contrary to what is stated in most versions of this piece, though, the FBI was not taping all of the hospital's calls that day; the conversation reproduced above was reconstructed from the memories of agents present at the event.

And yes, the FBI men did get their pizzas, but the food was not delivered to the hospital — several agents had to drive over to the restaurant and pick up their pies.

Patient killed by 'massive overdose' of anti-psychotic drug after nurse 'mistakenly gave him 21 times what he needed'

From a much longer report in the MIRROR.

A patient died from a massive overdose of anti-psychotic drugs after being given 21 times the medication he needed by a nurse, a court has heard.

Joshua Gafney was handed 4,200mg of clozapine instead of just 200mg by Amanda Young after the nurse visited him at his home.

Mr Gafney, 22, was handed a glass containing six bottles of the drug by 40-year-old Young when he needed just under a teaspoon-worth, just hours before he died on February 8 2012.

Bristol Crown Court heard how the nurse claimed she "did not see" crucial labels on Mr Gafney's medication, causing her to confuse the dosage.

She mistakenly believed each 14 ml bottle contained 50 mg of the powerful drug - when in fact this figure was per millilitre meaning there were actually 700 mg in the bottle.

His mother immediately raised concerns, which Young, from Summerlands Hospital, Somerset, attempted to resolve by putting some water in the solution.

Just two hours after the nurse left the family home in Yeovil, Somerset, Joshua was found unresponsive in bed by his mother, Tina Marren.

In spite of desperate attempts by his sister, Jasmine Gafney, and paramedics, to save Joshua, he was declared dead that evening.

A postmortem examination found Mr Gafney had died as a result of acute clozapine toxicity - an overdose.

N.J. medical bribe scheme reached grand scale

Selections from the extensive report on NewJersey.com

The first hint of the vast bribery scheme came with the arrests of a North Jersey doctor and three businessmen who, authorities said, found a way to turn a diagnostic lab with offices in Parsippany and Garfield into a virtual gold mine.

Two years later, federal prosecutors in Newark have racked up convictions of 38 people, including 25 doctors from New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, in what is believed to be one of the largest — if not the largest — laboratory bribery prosecutions in the United States, both in terms of money and the number of physicians caught with their hands out.

“To our knowledge, this is the largest number of medical professionals ever prosecuted in the same case,” U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said last week.

“It shows how pervasive this practice can be. It has also made people in the profession sit up and take notice and made the deterrent message that much louder,” he said.

In recent weeks two doctors, one weeping and both remorseful, have been sentenced after helping prosecutors catch others in cases that add to the broadening panorama of corruption.

By the numbers

• 25 doctors and one physician’s assistant pleaded guilty to accepting bribes.
• 16 of the doctors live in New Jersey; seven in New York; and two in Connecticut. The physician’s assistant is also from New Jersey.
• 12 other defendants who worked at Biodiagnostic Laboratory Services have pleaded guilty.
• The amount of bribes pocketed by individual doctors ranged from $10,500 to $1.8 million.
• In return for bribes, the doctors referred over $100 million in blood tests to the lab.
• So far, 12 doctors have been sentenced to terms ranging from one year of probation, for a cooperator, to more than three years in federal prison and fines of up to $75,000.

The government is seeking a combined forfeiture of more than $87 million from the 38 defendants, including $50 million from former BLS owner and president David Nicoll and $25 million from his brother, Scott Nicoll.

And it’s not over. Additional arrests of doctors who profited from the scheme are anticipated, prosecutors say.

Here is the section we are interested in from this extensive report on this large and complex scheme

A psychiatrist from Fort Lee, who practiced in Paterson, and a doctor from Ramsey are among 12 physicians who have already been sentenced. The psychiatrist, Claudio Dicovsky, admitted accepting $220,000 from BLS, but put a halt to the payments long before the feds came knocking. In January, he was placed on probation for three years, including one year of house arrest with electronic monitoring, and ordered to perform 1,500 hours of community service.

ABC15 Investigation: AZ mental hospital fails to investigate, protect patients from sex abuse

ABC15 TV has been investigating the Arizona State Hospital, and here is the tip of a very big iceberg. There is much more in the original and related reports. What we share below is merely a highlight.

The Arizona State Hospital has failed to protect vulnerable patients from sex abuse and dangerous sexual activity; and in several cases, officials have failed to investigate serious allegations, according to a two-year ABC15 investigation.

[...]

The ABC15 Investigators reviewed thousands of pages of hospital, police and court records to compile a list of sex crime allegations at the Arizona State Hospital. By cross-referencing the records, ABC15 was also able to identify repeat offenders and victims.

From 2012 through 2014, we found: 

• There were 63 allegations of sex crimes, including rape, sex abuse and molestation.
• ASH investigated 24 of those allegations.
• ABC15 could only confirm 10 allegations resulted in reports with Arizona Adult Protective Services (APS) or law enforcement.

State law states that APS or a peace officer be notified immediately if there’s a “reasonable basis to believe that abuse or neglect of the adult has occurred.”

But several hospital sources have told ABC15 incidents go unreported, and they fear retaliation if they do report incidents outside of ASH.

“Staff has been basically threatened that if they do contact APS that repercussions will happen,” said one hospital source. “It goes unreported because staff is in fear of their jobs.”

Unreported allegations and crimes by healthcare officials can be a serious matter.

Arizona State Hospital has a long history of problems, it is a target rich environment for investigators Here are some of the Videos related to this report