Sayre doctors indicted in five patient deaths

Two former Sayre physicians are among 76 doctors charged as a result of a national investigation into fraudulent health care practices that included prescribing opioids and other dangerous narcotics without properly checking patients. They also are charged with defrauding the U.S. government by submitting false claims to Medicare, Medi-
caid and other federal health care programs.
So says a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice issued Thursday.
The former Sayre physicians are Melvin Lee Robison, D.O., age 64, and Moheb Hallaba, M.D., 89.
Five patients died as a result of their actions, says the press release. Both doctors have been indicted by a federal grand jury meeting in Oklahoma City.
The release says the grand jury alleges that Dr. Robison, who practiced in Sayre, hired Dr. Hallaba nearly three years ago to write prescriptions at Robison’s clinic.
“From September 2015 to April 2017, both doctors are alleged to have signed hundreds of prescriptions per week without reviewing patient files or seeing the patients,” states the press release. “In particular, they are charged with 54 counts of distributing controlled substances – including Schedule II opioids such as Oxycodone, OxyContin, and fentanyl – outside the usual course of professional medical practice and without legitimate medical purpose.
“Dr. Robison is also charged with 51 counts of fraudulent Medicare billing. These offenses involved billing for services when he is alleged to have been out of the country and for patient visits allegedly conducted by a nurse practitioner rather than by Dr. Robison himself.”
The five patients who allegedly died as a result of fraudulent prescriptions are named only by initials in official charges filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. They are C.H., L.J.K., D.A.S., C.D., and J.R.B.
Charges pertaining to each of those deaths allege the following:
C.H. died Nov. 9, 2015, of acute oxycodone toxicity after receiving oxycodone and oxycontin;
L.J.K. died May 19, 2016, of acute oxycodone toxicity after receiving oxycodone;
D.A.S. died Sept. 28, 2016, of fentanyl toxicity after receiving fentanyl, hydrocodone and diazepam;
C.D. died Feb. 10, 2017, of acute combined drug toxicity after receiving morphine, oxycodone and diazepam; and
J.R.B. died April 3, 2017, of acute fentanyl toxicity after receiving fentanyl.
Three of the five deaths occurred after Dr. Robison’s license to practice medicine in Oklahoma was restricted “so that he could no longer write prescriptions for controlled drugs,” an introduction to the charges states. It says his license was restricted in June of 2016 and Dr. Hallaba began working at the Robison clinic on Oct. 1, 2015.
Nationally, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday that this was part of the largest health care fraud enforcement action in the department’s history. It said 601 defendants were charged, including 76 doctors, and that more than $2 billion in false billings was involved.