Former Northampton County doctor indicted in alleged opioid kickback scheme

With his license suspended in 2017 because of a U.S. Justice Department investigation, a former Northampton County doctor stands indicted on charges of taking more than $140,000 in bribes and kickbacks in exchange for prescribing large volumes of a powerful painkiller, federal authorities said.Kenneth Sun, 58, of Easton, who practiced in Plainfield Township and Phillipsburg, N.J., was charged Tuesday with conspiring to defraud the U.S., conspiring to pay and receive health care kickbacks and receiving health care kickbacks, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Sun is awaiting a trial date.Sun owned and maintained Progressive Pain Solutions LLC, a pain management medical practice.He solicited and received more than $140,000 in bribes and kickbacks from the Arizona-based Insys Therapeutics pharmaceutical company in exchange for prescribing more than 28 million micrograms of the powerful Subsys opioid, the federal indictment states.Subsys rapidly enters the bloodstream after being sprayed under the tongue. Sold by Insys Therapeutics for thousands of dollars for a month’s supply, Subsys contains fentanyl, a painkiller 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Subsys solely for cancer patients, but Sun prescribed Subsys to patients who didn’t need or want it and weren’t eligible for insurance reimbursement, the indictment states.Sun caused Medicare to pay more than $847,000 for medically unnecessary Subsys prescriptions that were procured through the payment of bribes and kickbacks and ineligible for Medicare reimbursement, according to authorities.Sun received the bribes and kickbacks under the guise of “honoraria” for educational presentations he purportedly gave licensed practitioners on Subsys, the indictment further alleges. These presentations turned out to be shams which lacked the appropriate audience of licensed practitioners and which Sun sometimes didn’t attend, authorities said.Morning Call reporter Andrew Scott can be reached at 610-820-6508 or ascott@mcall.com.
Source: Morningcall