$516,850 in Rx penalties upheld
Springdale drugstore owner’s appeal of sanctions rejected
Sanctions of $516,850 imposed on the owner of a Springdale drugstore found to have violated Arkansas drug-prescription regulations will stand, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herb Wright ruled on Tuesday, rejecting the Florida man’s appeal of the penalties imposed by state pharmacy regulators.
“[T]he Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy … decision was supported by substantial evidence,” Wright stated in his one-page decision, affirming the findings and fines.
In August 2021, the board found that Italo Solari of Boca Raton, Fla., had acquired a pharmacy license for the White River Pharmacy LLC under false pretenses and ran the pharmacy “in a manner to endanger public health.”
Among 18 violations of state law and pharmacy regulations, the board also determined that Solari breached rules by reusing returned prescription drugs, filling prescriptions from an unlicensed doctor, failing to confirm the legitimacy of prescriptions and billing insurance for prescriptions that were not asked for or never received by patients.
Solari, who did not attend the board’s hearing, was fined $498,100, ordered to pay $18,750 in investigative costs and barred from owning any facility that is regulated by the pharmacy board.
Solari denied wrongdoing and appealed the sanctions to court under the Administrative Procedure Act, arguing that pharmacy regulators incorrectly penalized Solari for his ownership role in White River at 7321 W. Sunset Ave. when he was not personally involved in either its management or its daily operations.
Represented by Little Rock attorney Darren O’Quinn, Solari argued that the board had ignored “well-established” state law that differentiates between companies and their shareholders/members.
O’Quinn urged the judge to overturn the findings against Solari under new standards set in 2020 by the Arkansas Supreme Court that grant a “fresh review” of the outcome. Previously, the courts were required to give great deference to agency findings unless the court determined that outcome was “clearly wrong.”
The board’s attorney told the judge that Solari’s actions and involvement as a permit holder, not the owner, were the issue.
“The evidence … clearly shows that Petitioner Solari’s actions constituted violations of Arkansas pharmacy laws and regulations,” Ashley Vailes, the board’s general counsel, asserted. “Solari as a holder of a permit to operate as an Arkansas pharmacy violated the Arkansas laws regarding pharmacy and board regulations. This is undisputed, and this alone is substantial evidence to support the board’s decision.”
The board’s findings showed that White River:
1) Shipped prescription medication to states where it did not have a pharmacy license.
2) Did not have valid patient/prescriber relationships because it had either no or little communications with providers or most patients.
3) Possessed blank presigned prescriptions without patient information
4) Accepted 13 prescriptions authorized by Dr. Darrel Rinehart of Tennessee between December 2019 and April 2020 after his license had been suspended. In 2021, Rinehart was sentenced to three years in federal prison in Tennessee for illegally providing medications, primarily opioids, in 2015 to four patients who did not need them.
5) Filled 1,065 prescriptions for Dr. Ananda de Silva of Missouri between September 2019 and April 2020 despite being unable to show evidence it had contact with him.
6) Removed the labels of some returned medications, blacked out the name of the previous patient, then sent them out again to other patients.
7) Employed pharmacist Tammy Bitzer who was “unfit or incompetent” to be a pharmacist due to “negligent performance” of her duties.