$105K in penalties for pharmacist guilty of improper narcotics dispensing and fraudulent billing

An Ontario pharmacist found guilty of improperly dispensing methadone and charging multiple dispensing fees for a prescription he processed once has been hit with a government fine and college costs totalling $105,000. Guo Ma, who was owner and designated manager of an Ottawa pharmacy, has been ordered to pay $20,000 to the provincial Ministry of Finance and $85,000 for investigation and hearing costs to the Ontario College of Pharmacists. According to a decision document posted by the college, between 2015 and 2017 Ma committed several acts of professional misconduct. These included dispensing unlabelled take-home doses of methadone to a patient who expressed concerns that she might have received the wrong product or dose. A pharmacist who witnessed the interaction told college investigators that, when questioned about the absence of labels, Ma had reasoned that the patient gets the same dose of methadone all the time so labels weren’t necessary. The college also heard from a staff pharmacist that Ma had advised him to ignore a narcotic monitoring system alert that a prescription for Oxycocet had already been dispensed to the same patient. According to the decision document, Ma told the pharmacist he didn’t understand the monitoring system and that as long as the prescription is authorized by a doctor, it’s alright to dispense the medication. Read: SRX Pharma Inc. ordered to pay largest fine ever by Saskatchewan College of Pharmacy Professionals A complaint made in 2016 by a staff pharmacist to the college led to a random pharmacy assessment by a community practice advisor. The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care also audited the pharmacy after receiving an anonymous complaint alleging that the pharmacy operates unethically and processes claims for medications not actually dispensed to patients. The audits, which compared the pharmacy’s purchases for selected drugs and products against claims submitted to the Ontario Drug Benefit Program, resulted in the revocation of the pharmacy’s billing privileges and termination of its subscription agreement with the drug benefit program. Ma was also found to have claimed dispensing fees six days in a row for methadone doses that his pharmacy processed and dispense in a single transaction. He resigned from the membership with the college in December 2020 and did not hire legal representation during his investigation and hearing. Read: 'Deplorable': Pharmacist who filed over $660K in false claims hit with 15-month suspension and $12,500 in costs

$105K in penalties for pharmacist guilty of improper narcotics dispensing and fraudulent billing

Register for free access or login.

Related Topics