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Doctor [Martinez] of Two Dead Patients Convicted of Fraud

 
Anonymous Reporter; CantonRep.com; 2006-01-14; Modified: 2006-06-28.
[Identifier: http://www.doctordeluca.com/Library/WOD/MartinezConvicted06.htm]
[Source: http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=263599&Category=13&fromSearch=yes]

 
Related resources:  Drug War Journalism and Advocacy Library
 
See also:
Physician [Martinez] Gets Life for Drug Deaths - Mike Tobin, Cleveland Plain Dealer, 2006-06-10
Dr. Frank Fisher Comments on the Martinez Conviction - F. Fisher, Pain Relief Network, 2006-01-14
The Trials of Dr. Fisher: the Cost of Exoneration - WAR ON PAIN SUFFERERS Collection #7; 2006
War on Doctors and Pain Crisis Weekly - RSS feed:   HTML view:
 

CLEVELAND (AP) — A doctor found guilty of health care fraud resulting in the deaths of two patients is only the second to be convicted of the offense.

Jorge Martinez faces up to life in prison for prescribing unnecessary drugs for patients suffering from chronic pain.

Prosecutors say he often prescribed medication such as OxyContin, Zoloft and Valium to people already hooked on drugs. He rarely gave a prescription until after the patient agreed to receive injections to treat pain.

Martinez, 54, of Bath Township, then billed Medicare, Medicaid, the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation and private health insurance plans for the injections.

“He would just harpoon them with these shots so he could bill more and get them dependent on more,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Linda Betzer said.

Hartinez contends his clinics in Parma and Boardman in northeast Ohio offered people relief from chronic pain.

A U.S. District Court jury convicted Martinez of 57 charges Thursday following a five-week trial, including two counts of health care fraud resulting in death. Judge Donald Nugent will sentence him in March.

John “Jack” Lancaster, 42, of Parma Heights, and Blair Knight, 35, of Ravenna, died while under Martinez’s care.

“This didn’t have to happen,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Virginia Hearey said. “But for Martinez’s criminal conduct, these men didn’t have to die.”

Karen Lancaster-Shells, who was married to Lancaster, said her husband was injured in a truck accident that resulted in severe neck and back pain that did not improve after several surgeries. She said Martinez billed her husband more than $10,000 a year for the injections.

“Dr. Martinez knew Jack had an addiction, yet he decided to treat him out of his own greed,” Lancaster-Shells tearfully said after the verdict.

On Sept. 5, 2001, Lancaster fell unconscious in Martinez’s office for several hours after he received two injections of Zoloft. He overdosed on multiple drugs two days later and died on Sept. 13, 2001.

Martinez submitted $60 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare, Medicaid, the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation and private health insurance plans. He received more than $12 million, more than half that came from the BWC, prosecutors said.

The only other doctor convicted of health care fraud resulting in death since the statute was passed in 1996 was William Hurwitz, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Cleveland.

Hurwitz, whose pain clinic drew patients from more than 39 states, prescribed high doses of drugs such as morphine and OxyContin. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison last April in federal court in Alexandria, Va.

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