A prominent La Jolla oncologist and his corporate medical practice admitted importing unapproved foreign cancer drugs at a deep discount, dispensing them to unwitting patients, billing Medicare as if the drugs were legitimate and pocketing the profits, federal officials announced Wednesday.
Dr. Joel I. Bernstein entered a guilty plea to a misdemeanor count of introducing an unapproved drug into interstate commerce, a cancer drug called “Mabthera”—intended for market in Turkey—and administering it to patients.
The approved U.S. drug with the same active ingredient is Rituxan, which is used to treat lymphomas and leukemias such as Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
Bernstein, 59, entered his plea on Jan. 15 was released pending sentencing, scheduled for April 16.
On Wednesday, the doctor's medical practice, Dr. Joel Bernstein M.D. Inc., pleaded guilty to health care fraud.
According to the plea agreement with the corporation, Bernstein's employees purchased $3.4 million of foreign cancer drugs, knowing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had not approved them for use in the United States.
From 2007 to 2011, Bernstein's office purchased the foreign drugs for significantly less than market value in the U.S. and then submitted claims to Medicare at the full reimbursement price, according to court papers.
The plea agreement for the corporation calls for $1.7 million in restitution to Medicare, plus forfeiture of $1.2 million in profits.
Authorities said the cases against Bernstein and his practice are the latest example of an alarming nationwide trend that potentially puts patients at risk by exposing them to foreign drugs—particularly injectable chemotherapy drugs—that are not vetted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
—City News Service
plese let him work with is investigation continue.
My wife was treated by this guy, thankfully without chemo although we discussed it with him as an option. I sure don't remember his saying anything about getting a drug rebate. So ultimately he's just caused all our future medical insurance payments to rise due to fraud. Thanks Ex-doc!
I can appreciate your affiliation feelings with a doctor that you feel saved your life. But that's not the issue here - it's that this guy lives in the US, works in the US and ... defrauded the US with one of the oldest tricks in the book used with everything from caviar to auto parts: buy the stuff on the black market for cheap then claim its the "real stuff" bought for the official price and pocket the difference. No, he didn't save his patients any money and thus didn't do them a favor. He did it for his own gain. Yeah, maybe the drug is the same but...did he actually do his own efficacy tests for the doses he bought? What were the expiration dates? Did the stuff first spend a year in an overheated werehouse? Would you want(or did you???) this mystery-background stuff injected into your body? My wife was treated by this guy, thankfully without chemo although we discussed it with him as an option. I sure don't remember his saying anything about getting a drug rebate. So ultimately he's just caused all our future medical insurance payments to rise due to fraud. Thanks Ex-doc!
I'll woman, cuddle her face in his hands, full of naked love. She responded to his gentle touch. There was no one else in the room. I am a breast cancer survivor and Dread the day when we are reduced to the robotic Drs. Of England's NHS which this Government so clearly wants. Mary Cloud