Doctor faces charges of overprescribing of opioids

A San Jose physician charged with illegally distributing opioids and committing health care fraud in 2018 issued 8,201 prescriptions in a year for large quantities of narcotics, according to the U.S. District Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California.

Donald Siao, 55, of San Jose, faces three counts of illegal distribution of hydrocodone and one count of illegal distribution of oxycodone pills, officials said in a release. Siao was also charged with two counts of health care fraud.

State officials began investigating Siao’s practice after a prescriptionmonitoring system identified him as a high prescriber of narcotics, citing 8,201 prescriptions he wrote in a recent year for large quantities of hydrocodone, oxycodone and other opioids, muscle relaxants and benzodiazepine, prosecutors said.

Siao faces up to 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of $1 million if he is convicted of illegal distribution. If convicted of health care fraud, he will face up to an additional 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.

According to the complaint, undercover law enforcement agents posed as new patients and met with Siao at his medical practice during an investigation conducted by the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The agents said they “vaguely” complained of pain and were prescribed hydrocodone or oxycodone after little to no physical examination. Initial and subsequent visits lasted about two minutes, and Siao continued prescribing the medicine and increasing the doses in followup appointments, agents said.

One agent said Siao prescribed him 30 pills of Norco — a hydrocodone brand name — following an eightsecond physical examination. In a followup visit, the agent requested larger prescriptions, telling Siao that he had given away pills to his employees as work incentives and had run out of pills when he went to a concert. Siao allegedly wrote him a prescription for 90

Norco pills during his last visit.

Another agent said he requested a larger prescription of hydrocodone from Siao so that he could repay debts by selling the pills.

Siao is out of custody on bond. He is expected to appear in court on Wednesday to review bond conditions and on April 19 to hear the status of his indictment.