Crime & Safety

La Jolla Cancer Doc Gets Probation in Health Care Fraud Case

Dr. Joel I. Bernstein and his practice admitted to buying millions of dollars of unapproved foreign drugs, using them on patients here and billing Medicare.

A La Jolla oncologist whose practice admitted to buying $3.4 million of unapproved foreign drugs, and submitting fraudulent Medicare claims for them has been sentenced to a year of probation.

Dr. Joel I. Bernstein pleaded guilty in January to a misdemeanor charge of introducing an unapproved drug into interstate commerce—a cancer drug called "Mabthera" which is intended for use in Turkey, but is comparable to the FDA-approved Rituxan in the U.S. On Tuesday, Bernstein was sentenced to a year of probation for buying Mabthera from Canada but using it to treat patients here, according to a U-T San Diego report.

His practice, Dr. Joel Bernstein M.D. Inc., has also pleaded guilty to fraud. The practice, as part of a plea agreement, was ordered to pay a $500,000 fine, forfeit $1.2 million and pay Medicare $1.7 million in restitution. It, too, received a year's probation, "meaning officers can examine the company’s financial records at any time and submit to searches," according to the U-T report.

This case is just one of more than 200 being investigated by the FBI. In a January news release, the bureau stated that there was an "alarming nationwide trend" of using unapproved foreign drugs on patients.

“This isn’t just about the greed of one doctor but about the welfare of many patients,” U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy was quoted as saying. “In a worst-case scenario, chemotherapy drugs that have not been approved by the FDA may be fake, ineffective, unsafe, and dangerous. This is what motivates the Department of Justice and the FDA to be more aggressive in stopping those who would corrupt the integrity of the pharmaceutical supply chain with no regard for the well-being of patients.”

Bernstein could have faced a maximum of five years probation, according to the FBI news release.


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