Second doctor in pain-pill case loses license

The second of two Sebastian County doctors linked by federal drug investigators to the over-prescription of pain pills to four people who died from overdoses has had his medical license suspended by the Arkansas State Medical Board.

In an emergency order of suspension signed Monday, the board claimed Don Hinderliter violated the Medical Practices Act. It also set an April 4 hearing to determine if Hinderliter violated the act and, if so, what punishment he should receive, such as a suspension or revocation of his license.

An attempt to contact Hinderliter on Wednesday at Hinderliter Pain Clinic in Barling was unsuccessful. The phone line had been disconnected.

The medical license of Cecil Gaby of Fort Smith was suspended in November after allegations he violated the Medical Practices Act by over-prescribing pain pills. He was scheduled to have his disciplinary hearing before the medical board last week but the hearing wasn’t held and hadn’t been rescheduled as of Wednesday, according to a medical board spokesman.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said in a search warrant affidavit the two doctors prescribed more than 2 million pills over two years to patients who didn’t need the pills or for which they had no paperwork justifying the prescriptions.

The medical board’s suspension order against Hinderliter said he violated the Medical Practices Act by prescribing an excessive amount of controlled substances to patients, and prescribed the medication for pain not associated with malignancy or terminal illness for more than six months without keeping proper records or monitoring the condition of the patients

to justify the continued prescriptions.

The order said Hinderliter violated the Chronic Intractable Pain Treatment Act by prescribing dangerous or controlled drugs to a person he knew to be using the drugs for nontherapeutic purposes, prescribing the drugs to a person for other than legitimate medical purposes, and the persistent and flagrant overcharging or overtreatment of patients.

The order included claims involving nine patients, identified by initials, in which the board said Hinderliter prescribed excessive amounts of pain pills without maintaining records on monitoring or justifying the patients’ ongoing prescriptions.

In three of the cases, the patients had cancer but Hinderliter had no documentation on the stage or prognosis of the cancer diagnosis, the order said.

According to a medical board attorney, the board’s investigation of Gaby and Hinderliter began in September independent of the DEA investigation.

There was no record Wednesday of federal charges being filed against either doctor in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas.

The DEA affidavit said in May 2017, drug enforcement officials received several anonymous complaints Hinderliter and Gaby were operating a “pill mill” at Hinderliter Pain Clinic in Barling. In July 2018, the doctors split up and Gaby opened his own clinic in Fort Smith.

Drug officials reviewing Arkansas Electronic Prescription Monitoring Program records found from July 11, 2016, to July 11, 2018, Gaby prescribed 1,156,044 doses of opioid drugs to 347 patients, an average of 3,332 pill per patient over the two years, the affidavit said.

Records showed Hinderliter prescribed 832,994 doses of opioid drugs to 462 patients, an average of 1,803 pills per patient, according to the affidavit.