Dr. shopping?? misrepresentation....?

Question

Ok, so I had 4 surgeries in 3 months this year. 2 gynecological surgeries, then went to my reg. dentist and was diagnosed with abscessed wisdom teeth. So, of course oral surgeon did removal. 2 wks. later discovered a dislocated bone after the wisdom teeth removal, now I have 7 felony charges for Dr. Shopping. WTF? Can an OB-GYN do oral surgery, can an oral surgeon do Gynecological surgeries/bladder surgeries. Are the authorities seriously possible on crack?? Anyway, saying I've accumulated 2 much hydrocodone, my ins. issued statement saying they wouldn't have covered had it been unwarranted or unncessary. What is your thoughts? I'm blown a way!

Answer 1

What happened is that your purchases of controlled substances triggered an alert for local law enforcement as being outside a standard pattern.   I've seen more of this as Doctor's are not responding to law enforcement for fear of violating HIPPA, so the LEOs go after the buyer.

Contact  the issuing agency/officer and offer to send over a copy of the insurance letter as well as proof of the surgeries and there is a good chance the charge will be dismissed without you even needing to go to court.

Answer 2

Do not attempt to contact the authorities to prove your innocense.  They already think you are guilty and nothing will change that.  Unless you give them something that definitavely proves your innocence, they will ignore the things favorable to you and simply take everything else and spin it against you.  You need a lawyer to deal with these people.

I would expect good chance that a lawyer will get an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal.  This means that you will have a certain amount of time to stay clean and it will be dismissed.  This is why.  The fact that you had surgery means that you had objective findings.  That is enough to cause reasonable doubt with a jury, which means an acquital.  Being faced with these medical records, the DA will not likely want to go forward.

But, if the DA is hard nosed, I would think that it will come down to what you disclosed to each doctor.  I assume that you have 2 separate doctors.  If you went to 4 separate doctors, you may not beat this, unless it was based upon referrals from the others.  The reason that the intake sheets from the doctors are so significant is b/c if you disclosed that you were already under care and recently had surgery, I think that this would be enough to prove that you were not Dr. Shopping.  After all, I have never heard of a surgical procedure without pain medicine prescribed.  If you disclosed that you had been prescribed pain pills recently from the other doctors, then it cannot even be argued you did anything wrong.  You have the right to see as many doctors as you want, and if you disclose what meds you were given from other doctors, it is really no different than only going to one doctor for the purposes of the government's accusations.

I would presume that the government already had your records from each doctor before indicting you, as it is hard to imagine that they would indict based only upon the fact that you had multiple prescriptions from 2 doctors.  I do not think that would be enough for a grand jury to indict.  This indicates a real problem.  

If you did not disclose your surgical procedure to the second doctor, I think that would be enough to support an indictment and get beyond a motion to dismiss.  Then it is up to a jury to decide whether they believe you.

Good luck with this.  Once the DA decides to s***w with you, they are really vicious.  

As awful as it is, you have no choice but to hire an attorney.  I know how expensive it is, but you really need to fight this correctly.  For your own sanity, I would go down to the doctors who you saw first thing in the morning and ask to look at your file so you can see how you responded to their intake sheet.  

If you are in NY State, contact me, I would be willing to help you for a very fair price.

Answer 3

It doesn't sound like doctor shopping to me..