Prakash Bhatia, Opioid Overprescribing, California 2020

San Diego area psychiatrist Prakash Bhatia, M.D., has paid $145,000 to resolve allegations that he overprescribed opioids. Dr. Bhatia previously owned and operated Progressive Health and Wellness in El Cajon, California, practicing pain medicine.

The settlement stems from an investigation that the Drug Enforcement Administration initiated into whether Dr. Bhatia improperly prescribed opioids to his patients at Progressive Health and Wellness (PHW) in violation of the civil provisions of the Controlled Substances Act.

Pursuant to the Controlled Substances Act, health care providers may write prescriptions for opioids only for a legitimate medical purpose while acting in the usual course of their professional practice. Based on its investigation, the United States alleged that from March 2013 to December 2017, Dr. Bhatia wrote opioid prescriptions at PHW, including for hydromorphone, morphine, methadone, oxycodone, fentanyl and oxymorphone without a legitimate medical purpose and/or outside the usual course of his professional practice, in violation of the Controlled Substances Act.

The United States alleged that Dr. Bhatia also prescribed these medications in combination with depressant medications (including benzodiazepines and muscle relaxants), which are known to increase the risk of abuse, addiction and overdose.

While the U.S. Attorney’s Office continues to aggressively investigate prescribers who brazenly seek to make money by writing opioid prescriptions to those who have no pain, this investigation exemplifies the office’s willingness to scrutinize whether doctors treating patients who actually suffer painful conditions are nevertheless overprescribing opioids.

Health care providers treating patients who suffer from pain must still only prescribe opioids in accordance with recognized and accepted medical standards. This includes tracking the potency of opioids prescribed to patients by noting the Morphine Milligram Equivalent (MME, also commonly referred to as Morphine Equivalent Dose or MED) of prescribed opioids.

“Overprescribing opioids to patients who need treatment for their pain has contributed to the opioid epidemic in this country,” said U.S. Attorney Robert Brewer. “This office is committed to utilizing all available tools to combat this epidemic, including civil prosecution under the Controlled Substances Act. As this settlement demonstrates, my office will continue to investigate health care providers for overprescribing opioids.”

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