AZ Attorney General receives $500,000 in settlements with Scottsdale, Tucson doctors over opioid prescriptions

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TUCSON, Arizona (KOLD News 13) – The Arizona Attorney General has reached a settlement with two doctors who allegedly took bribes from a Chandler-based opioid manufacturer.

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich claims these health care professionals prescribed highly addictive people who did not need them.

Brnovich announced that his office was opened with Dr. Nikesh Seth, a Scottsdale-based pain management doctor, and Dr. Sheldon Gingerich, a Tucson-based pain reliever physician, has received approval ratings.

According to a press release, the settlements are asking the two doctors to pay more than $ 500,000 to clarify the bureau’s allegations that the doctors took hundreds of thousands of dollars in “speaking fees” from Chandler-based Insys Therapeutics for prescribing from Subsys, a prescription opioid drug that contains fentanyl.

Last year, the company’s former vice president of sales admitted that he illegally used the Insys speakerphone program to compensate doctors for prescribing Subsys.

Subsys contains fentanyl and is one of the most powerful drugs a doctor can prescribe. It is 100 times stronger than morphine.

“The Subsys spray is available in doses so strong that a splash could easily kill someone who is not used to taking opioids. These are deadly weapons, ”said Andrew Kolodny, co-director of opioid research and Brandeis University.

The Food and Drug Admission has approved Subsys for pain management in cancer patients.

In the consumer fraud lawsuit, Brnovich alleged the doctors wrote tons of Subsys prescriptions to patients who didn’t need them. He said the company made millions on its “fraudulent plan” but put countless patients at risk, exposing them to unacceptable and unnecessary risk of addiction and death.

According to the lawsuit, 64% of the company’s Subsys sales in Arizona came from prescriptions obtained from only three doctors, Gingerich, Seth, and Dr. Steve Fanto from Scottsdale.

Gingerich has received more than $ 43,000 in payments from Insys, according to Open Payments, a national transparency program that gathers and publishes information about financial relationships between the healthcare industry and providers. In 2015, Open Payments reported that Insys paid Gingrich more than $ 26,000.

Prosecutors say from roughly 2013 to 2015, Insys paid Gingerich at least $ 80,000 to influence him to prescribe Subsys, and increase the number and dosage of prescriptions he wrote.

In the context of the comparisons, Dr. Seth lost $ 229,000 and paid another $ 145,000 to Arizona. Dr. Gingerich lost more than $ 80,000 and paid more than $ 50,000 to the state.

According to the settlement, Seth will be prohibited from receiving money or gifts from manufacturers, sellers, or promoters of prescription drugs for the next ten years. Seth has denied any illegal or unlawful conduct and the approval judgment is not considered an admission of guilt.

According to the proposed Consent Judgment with Gingerich, the Tucson doctor will be permanently banned from prescribing controlled substances, taking money from drug companies, or holding compensation for practicing the medicine.

In the document, Gingerich denies all allegations but agreed to the settlement to avoid the cost and uncertainty of further litigation.

“People sacredly trust their doctors, especially when prescribing opioids,” Brnovich said. “We will hold anyone accountable who violated that trust and benefited inappropriately from the Arizona opioid crisis.”

AGO’s lawsuit against another Arizona doctor and John Kapoor, founder and former president of Insys, continues.

Copyright 2021 KOLD News 13. All rights reserved.

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