Merrick doctor wants pain pill case tossed

[TexasTowelie]

A Merrick doctor under indictment for allegedly writing illegal prescriptions for patients is asking a federal judge to dismiss the case against him and go after those he thinks are really at fault — the pharmaceutical companies who promoted the drugs while downplaying their risks.

Dr. Michael Belfiore, who lives in Westbury and practices in Merrick, was charged in 2014 with unlawfully prescribing oxycodone to an undercover Nassau County detective, and now faces further charges of illegally prescribing the drug to patients.

Belfiore wrote 5,000 prescriptions for 600,000 pain pills between January 2010 and March 2013, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Central Islip.

According to federal officials, 5,000 is “an extremely high number of oxycodone prescriptions and oxycodone pills issued by a sole family practitioner, especially in light of the defendant’s specialty area: general family medicine and dermatology.”

Read more: http://liherald.com/stories/Merrick-doctor-wants-pain-pill-case-tossed,87038

[HassleCat]

1. A dermatologist

"Oh, doctor! My pores are killing me! I need some oxy!"

[TexasTowelie]

3. Yes, the doctor does appear to be blind to the ridiculousness of his claim.hOWE

However, I can only imagine how many pills I could have received each time my cats have scratched me and left scars behind.

He got caught and now he is trying a novel defense to absolve himself.

[Docreed2003]

2. As a surgeon...

Writing pain scripts is part of my job. In my career I've maybe written one or two scripts for more than thirty pills, and that is usually for cancer patients. This guy is averaging 120 pills per script! WTF! Even in my busiest years, I didn't come close to writing the number of scripts this guy did. He got caught with his pants down and he should now pay the price. The overabundance of narcotic prescriptions in the country must be curtailed if we have any hope of changing the current opiate epidemic.

[TexasTowelie]

4. You make an excellent point.

Despite the various issues the only time that I was prescribed more than 650 mg of hydrocodone was when I received Halcion for the actual procedure when my wisdom teeth were extracted. That includes other instances of severe back pain, a broken arm and when I had 11 teeth from my lower jaw when I received dentures. There are only a few occasions where I could see prescribing something as strong as oxycontin and I doubt that a general practitioner or dermatologist encounters those on a regular basis. I am not opposed to people receiving pain relievers when they are needed, but it is almost certain that this doctor received some type of kickback or payment for authorizing that many prescriptions.

[Docreed2003]

7. Agreed

And I hope I didn't come off as anti-pain meds. There are a significant number of patients like yourself that require narcotic prescriptions and legitimately needthem for severe chronic pain. My issue here is with the doc.

Last year in RI, the Providence Journal had a front page expose on the top 25 opiate prescribing physicians in the state. I didn't necessarily agree with the tactic but it was definitely insightful. Now practicing in TN, the rules for opiate prescriptions are much stricter here. I can only write one script after surgery. If a patient requires more, they have to see there PCP.

[Warpy]

5. I honestly don't think it's the fact that he wrote scrips for 120 pills at a time,

the real problem for his "patients" was what kind of scrips they were, for long acting oxycodone. Yes, somebody who stays on opiates 24/7 is going to need a higher dose after a few weeks. Yes, they're going to get dependent on that drug.

They'll hang this guy out to dry, of course, but he does have a point about Big Pill and their relentless advertising of OxyContin as a safer drug for both short and long term pain control. It's not.

I get 270 pills per prescription, myself, but that's for 3 months and they're short acting, just enough to give me a few hours of relief a day so I can get things done. Again, it's not the number of pills. It's the type.

The pharmaceutical industry does bear some of the blame for the number of people dependent on opiates.

[Cooley Hurd]

6. That's a lot of opioid scripts, but not the record:

https://www.rawstory.com/2016/05/ny-doctors-indictment-for-300000-illegal-prescriptions-leaves-patients-struggling-with-pain/

A Williamsville, New York doctor’s indictment for issuing 300,000 illegal painkiller prescriptions has left several patients without a means of acquiring medications they need for their day-to-day lives.

“I cannot function, unfortunately, without medication,” Rose Marie Eidshahen told WIVB-TV. “I have metal everywhere.”

Eidshahen’s doctor, Eugene Gosy, was indicted late last month on 114 counts of conspiracy commit health care fraud, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, health care fraud, and unlawful distribution of narcotics.

According to the New York Daily News, Goss filed false claims worth more than $241,000, and would sign blank prescriptions allowing patients to enter both the type of medication they wanted and the dosage, sometimes while Gosy himself was out of the country, a process that created 300 illegal prescription renewals a day.

If convicted, he faces a $1 million fine and up to 20 years in prison. But the closing of his office for two weeks following the indictment left Eidshahen and other patients struggling to find a new medical provider. One of them, Stephen Szymoniak, said he was placed on numerous waiting lists while searching for a doctor who could fill his prescription for buprenorphine, an opioid which is not widely available because prescribing it requires a certain certification.

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