June 3, 2019

A former physician’s assistant in New Hampshire has been sentenced to 4 years in prison for writing prescriptions of a fentanyl spray in exchange for over $49,000 in kickbacks masked as speaker honorariums.  After being approached by a drug manufacturer in 2013, Christopher Clough wrote upwards of 750 prescriptions for the spray, which was intended for management of breakthrough cancer pain (BTCP).  Over 215 of those prescriptions were for Medicare and TRICARE patients and led to payments of over $2.1 million by Medicare and almost $600,000 by TRICARE.  On top of the kickback charges, Clough was accused of causing patient harm for prescribing the drug, in high doses, to patients who didn’t have BTCP, and then rebuffing patient and family requests to get off the drug.  USAO NH

Tagged in: Anti-Kickback and Stark, Healthcare Fraud, Medicare, Other Government Health Programs,