Today would have been my twentieth wedding anniversary. Instead, it is just another day, but a lot more painful than most. My ex-wife filed for divorce in the Fall of 2021, very shortly after my indictment in August, 2021. Our divorce was finalized about a year later, in August 2022. This day is another reminder of the pain I caused, the disaster I created, and the struggles that I continue to face; all due to a number of bad decisions and prideful patterns of behavior in my professional (no, make that illegal and unprofessional) work as a physician in 2017-2019.
I made some seriously wrong decisions, and I conducted myself in a reprehensible manner. I own my mistakes and will forever ask for forgiveness. I cannot tell you all of the negative emotions that I have, the shame I carry, the sadness I foster, and the fear of what is yet to come. I know this is all of my doing. But despite all of the negative feelings, there is good in all of this. I have already learned so much. And through my Faith, I am positive that God has a plan and purpose for me in all of this.
So here I am on my wedding anniversary. Instead of celebrating, and because of my actions, I am going home to an empty house. Well, it’s actually a townhouse that I am renting. Only because I volunteer at our church will I get to see three of my four kids tonight at youth-group. My life now is nothing like I ever envisioned or dreamed possible. But because of my pride and poor decisions, I have lost everything that mattered to me except for my faith. I’m ashamed to have failed my family. Because I broke the law, I was investigated, fired, indicted, fired again, kicked-out, divorced, ostracized, rejected, forgotten, and I face a likely sentence of prison and restitution.
The cliff notes version of what happened is that I got recruited as a telemedicine physician to help people with chronic pain and arthritis issues. They had me prescribe durable medical equipment (DME) such as joint and back braces, as well as compounded topical pain creams. These treatments should have been very cost-effective and beneficial alternative therapies to surgery or opioid pain medicines. However, just about every step of the process was done wrong in some way, and none of it would have happened without a physician signature, MY signature. What they did to acquire patients was wrong, what they told me to do was wrong, the way I did the “consults” was wrong. Based on their guidance and legal counsel I signed prescriptions without talking to the patients, they stole my signature, they charged insane amounts to Medicare for the therapies, and they lied to me and the patients every step of the way. But I did everything wrong! I was wrong!
Although I was not involved in the conspiracy of it all, nor the many companies that made millions of dollars from this, none of it would have happened without physicians like me. What I did was wrong. All wrong. You are right to question my good intentions, but I did have them. That’s why I went into medicine and have done most everything my entire life. However there is no excuse, and I should have known and done better. For this I am sorry and ashamed.
As I begin to tell my story, it is most important for me to convey my extreme remorse to the victims involved in my crime. Unfortunately, I was involved in a large, far-reaching conspiracy that involved many patients and cost the government a lot of money. I am only comforted to know that no patients were harmed in any way, and no individuals lost any of their own money. From the beginning, and for quite some time, I had no idea what I was doing was illegal. The leaders of the conspiracy convinced and reassured me repeatedly, every step of the way, even when I had questions or concerns. But let me be clear, it was my responsibility to know, and I should have known. And when I had questions, saw some red flags, I should have quit.
Thankfully, no individual was injured in any way from what we were doing. For this I am eternally grateful, because the reason I got involved was first and foremost to help people and to make a positive difference to patients in need. I still hope that we did help a lot of these people in some way. But what I did cost the government a lot of money. I didn’t know that what I was involved in was such a large money grab by the leaders of the conspiracy; but none of it would have happened without a physician such as myself. Words cannot express it well enough. So, simply, I was wrong and I am sorry.
