A medical doctor who operated a practice in Kahului on Maui, with a second office in Hilo, was charged by federal criminal complaint with six counts of unlawful distribution of hydrocodone. The complaint was unsealed on October 8, 2020. The charges are allegations, and the physician had not been convicted at the time of the announcement.
According to the affidavit supporting the complaint, an undercover agent from the Drug Enforcement Administration sought an appointment in December 2018 while posing as a new patient seeking opioid prescriptions. Over six visits between December 2018 and May 2019, the agent allegedly received a prescription for between 84 and 90 hydrocodone pills each time, often within minutes of the physician entering the exam room and with little or no medical history taken or physical examination performed.
Investigators had medical experts review the patient records created for the undercover agent. The affidavit states that the records were inadequate to justify the prescriptions and contained false or fabricated information, including notations of musculoskeletal examinations that video footage allegedly showed did not occur or were only partial. A law enforcement analysis of the physician's prescription data from about 2015 through 2020 reportedly found that 88 percent of patients receiving controlled-substance prescriptions obtained an opioid prescription.
The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. Each count of unlawful distribution of a schedule II controlled substance carries a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison.