Pubdate: Fri, 28 Feb 2014
Source: Herald, The (Everett, WA)
Copyright: 2014 The Daily Herald Co.
Contact:  http://www.heraldnet.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/190

A LOT MORE THAN A NUISANCE

Here's another reason you cannot keep your doctor, even you if 
really, really like him or her: He or she was dealing drugs.

In December, Dr. Hieu Tu Le, 40, pleaded guilty to running a 
prescription mill out of his Everett Mall Way clinic, Northwest Green 
Medical, Levi Pulkkinen of SeattlePI.com reported. In his plea, Le 
admitted he simply sold pain pills directly to patients, ditching the 
charade of prescriptions. (During the lengthy DEA investigation, it 
was noted patients leaving the clinic never availed themselves of the 
pharmacy next door.)

Agents estimate Le's operation brought him hundreds of thousands of 
dollars in less than two years. The money helped pay for a $800,000 
home in Snohomish, Pulkkinen reported, and pay down his student 
loans. (Pulkkinen notes of Le's career path: "A graduate of Saint 
Lucia's less than prestigious Spartan Health Science University - its 
graduates are barred from practicing medicine in five U.S. states, 
and the entire United Kingdom - Le was a traveling anesthesiologist 
before he opened a medical marijuana clinic on Seattle's Capitol Hill 
for seven months in 2012.)

In court papers, a DEA agent said the investigation into Le's 
activities began in October 2012 as a Medicare fraud case. 
Investigators contended Le had been soaking insurance companies 
during his years working out of Valley General Hospital in Monroe, 
Pulkkinen reported. The agent said Le admitted to staff there that 
he'd been faking patient records for eight years in order to 
overcharge for his services. Investigators estimated Le tried to 
steal $142,000 from the federal program, and managed to receive 
$28,500 in Medicare payments for bogus claims.

After opening Northwest Green Medical in Everett, investigators 
learned Le was prescribing about 2,238 oxycodone tablets each month. 
Between late October 2011 and late May 2013, he issued 314 oxycodone 
prescriptions that ultimately saw 38,384 pain pills sold. In the 18 
months prior to April, he took in $616,828; nearly half of that came 
in cash payments.

"Le appeared to simply be prescribing controlled substances in order 
to make a profit, and without any due regard for medically-based 
patient need," an agent wrote in court papers. Le, 40, faces five to 
seven years in federal prison when he is sentenced in April.

Opiate addiction is a health epidemic in the United States. In 
Washington, there are more deaths annually from prescription drug 
abuse than from meth, cocaine, and heroin combined. While Everett 
enacted an ordiance labeling medical marijuana dispensaries "a 
nuisance" to keep them from opening in the city, does it need to do 
something to prevent another strip mall pill mill such as Le's from 
opening and operating?
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom