Doctor gets probation for drugs, fraud
A former Wilkinsburg doctor avoided prison Friday when a federal judge sentenced him to probation for prescribing oxycodone to a doctor-shopping patient for no medical reason and ripping off Medicare.
U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer imposed a probation term of three years on Yee Chung Ho, 72, a family medicine practitioner in Wilkinsburg who lives in Murrysville.
She also ordered him to be on home detention for six months, perform 250 hours of community service and pay $6,500 in restitution. In addition, he must forfeit an $89,000 criminal forfeiture judgment.
Ho had waived indictment last year and pleaded guilty to four counts of drug diversion and health care fraud.
He had been charged by criminal information after an investigation by the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the state attorney general’s office.
Prosecutors said on several dates in May and June 2019, he dispensed 80 oxycodone tablets outside the usual course of professional practice to a woman who was trying to get pregnant and did get pregnant.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Gal-Or said he prescribed the drug despite receiving numerous warning letters from insurance companies, health plans and consultants who said the woman had a history of doctor-shopping for opioids and describing the risks of her taking them in combination with benzodiazepines, anti-anxiety medications.
Ho prescribed the drugs without doing an exam or taking any urine samples.
He then committed health care fraud by causing fraudulent claims to be submitted to Medicare to pay for the illegally prescribed oxycodone.
Ms. Gal-Or asked for a sentence in the range of 24 to 30 months in prison.
Ho’s lawyer, Phil DiLucente, argued for probation and presented letters from 75 people on behalf of Ho, many of them patients who expressed gratitude for his care over the years. Others spoke of his charitable work, house calls, visits to nursing homes, and selfless medical treatment he provided to Chinese Americans and African Americans in an impoverished area.
One of his children, a doctor in New Jersey, said he hoped to become “half the doctor” his father had been.
Ho said he came to America in 1974 and had been a good doctor for 45 years. He apologized and asked the judge to “weigh the good that I have done against the mistakes I have made.”
Mr. DiLucente said the case is different from many others involving criminal doctors in that Ho was not prescribing the drugs for monetary gain or for sex, usually the two motivating factors.
Instead, he said, Ho had been duped by the patient and had not kept up on rules and regulations.
“He was reckless at times,” Mr. DiLucente explained. “Sometimes he couldn’t say no.”
The judge sided with the defense in forgoing prison for Ho, saying probation, plus the loss of his DEA registration and his medical license, is punishment enough.