State official seeks to stop 12 docs from prescribing painkillers

New Jersey’s Consumer Affairs Director Eric Kanefsky has filed actions seeking to strip 12 New Jersey doctors, two of whom practiced locally, of their ability to prescribe controlled dangerous substances, including highly addictive painkillers.

“Revocation of a doctor’s CDS registration, when a doctor has already been criminally convicted or lost his or her license, creates an additional barrier that will protect the public, should any of these doctors seek to have their medical license restored,” Acting Attorney General John Hoffman said in a written statement. “We are engaged in an all-out effort to stem an epidemic in which opiate pain pills are a primary gateway drug. As part of this fight, we are protecting the public from doctors convicted of being part of the problem, or who lost their license due to findings that they were part of the problem.”

All but one of the 12 doctors were convicted in federal or state courts for criminal offenses related to the illegal prescribing of controlled substances. The remaining doctor’s license was revoked by the State Board of Medical Examiners due to a civil complaint in which the Attorney General alleged he indiscriminately prescribed a controlled dangerous substance. Director Kanefsky’s action follows those criminal and civil matters, and seeks to permanently revoke each doctor’s CDS registration.

“When a doctor is found to have abused the privilege to prescribe CDS by making drugs available to abusers or dealers, our default position should be that the doctor will never again be able to prescribe these medications,” Director Kanefsky said. “Doctors who have been convicted of behaving like street drug dealers, or who lost their licenses due to similar findings, will need to apply not just to the Board of Medical Examiners, but also to the Director of Consumer Affairs, if they want to practice again. They will need to demonstrate that they can be trusted with the responsibility they once abdicated.”

Physicians obtain their medical licenses through the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners. But no licensed physician may prescribe controlled dangerous substances — including highly addictive painkillers such as Oxycodone — without a CDS registration, which is granted by the Director of the Division of Consumer Affairs.

In the cases of the following 12 doctors, Director Kanefsky issued orders to show cause why their CDS registration should not be revoked.

Augustine Lee, who practiced in The Board of Medical Examiners suspended his license in February 2013, having temporarily suspended his license in March 2011. According to information included in the Order to Show Cause, an investigation of federal and state law enforcement agents revealed he had issued hundreds of prescriptions for Oxycodone and other controlled substances in exchange for cash payments without conducting medical examinations. Lee pled guilty to unlawful distribution of Oxycodone in January 2012. He was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, to be followed

Trenton:

by three years of supervised release, and agreed to the forfeiture of $83,800. William Kropinicki, practiced in

The Board of Medical Examiners revoked his license in September 2008. He pled guilty in New Jersey Superior Court in October 2012 to multiple counts of illegal prescribing of CDS, including conspiracy and distribution of Oxycodone. He was sentenced to seven years in state prison. According to information included in the Order to Show Cause, Kropinicki accepted $100 payments for multiple prescriptions of Percocet which he issued in at least eight different patient names. The order also noted that he created fraudulent patient records in the fictitious names to justify the prescriptions.

Full profiles of the remaining 10 doctors can be found at trentonian.com:

Eugene Demczuk, who practiced in Union and in Brooklyn, New York

Michael Durante, who practiced in Nutley

Philip Eatough, who practiced in Monmouth County

Roger Lallemand Jr., who practiced in Old Bridge

Michael Chung Kay Lam, who practiced in Fort Lee

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Lawrence:

Jacqueline Lopresti, who practiced in Shrewsbury

Manuel B. who practiced in City Nigalan, Atlantic

Bipin Parikh, who practiced in Jersey City

Ronald Rahman: who was unlicensed in New Jersey

Carnig Shakajian, a podiatrist who practiced in Park Ridge