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Los Alamos Dr. Vikram Alladi "is not a supect at this time," according to Los Alamos Police Capt. Randy Foster, contrary to an earlier report.
Los Alamos police are investigating possible prescription drug fraud out of Medical Associates of Northern New Mexico clinic.
Alladi is no longer with the practice. His voluntary departure was unrelated to the allegations, and was simply a career boost, according to his attorney. The job change was planned long before the allegations came to light, his attorney told the Journal.
The original news was reported on Oct. 20 on ABQjournal.com. An updated report on the investigation was printed in Jounal North on Oct. 22. That story is below:
Thursday, October 22, 2009
As published in the Journal
By Vic Vela
Journal Staff Writer
Los Alamos police are investigating possible prescription drug fraud
out of a medical center where employees allegedly obtained
prescriptions for thousands of painkiller pills over the past year,
according to a court document.
Three employees at Medical Associates of Northern New Mexico obtained
numerous prescriptions for the drugs oxycodone and hydrocodone,
according to a police search warrant affidavit filed in state District
Court in Santa Fe last week.
Oxycodone and hydrocodone are prescribed to relieve pain, but are also known to be sold on the street and used recreationally.
No charges have been filed against anyone, and police say they are still investigating.
However, the three Medical Associates employees in question -- as well
as Dr. Vikram Alladi, under whose name most of the prescriptions were
issued -- no longer work at the medical center, according to clinic
administrator June Wall. Wall would not comment further.
Medical Associates reported possible prescription fraud to the police
in late September, after a pharmacist at a Santa Fe Walgreens called
about painkiller dosing in some prescriptions submitted for an employee
of the clinic being "way to high."
A "team leader" at the clinic told police that handwriting on three of
the prescriptions "looked like" the writing of another employee there,
not Alladi's, the police affidavit states.
Alladi told one of the staff members who reported the prescription
problems to police that "he would not prescribe that much narcotics to
someone because it would kill you," according to the police statement.
Attempts by the Journal to reach Alladi by phone were unsuccessful Wednesday.
One of the clinic workers under investigation is Alladi's 36-year-old
medical assistant, who from October 2008 through August of this year
obtained 780 oxycodone pills, according to the affidavit. One of the
other staff members under investigation reportedly said, according to
an account one of the reporting employees gave the police, that the
medical assistant would "write her prescriptions."
Alladi also was said to have told one of the staffers looking into the
problem prescriptions that the medical assistant would give him
prescriptions to sign, and he'd give them back to the assistant.
After sifting through prescription logs, police found that a
27-year-old female employee had received 1,280 pills of oxycodone and
900 pills of hydrocodone in less than a year, beginning in September
2008 and ending Aug. 26.
A 52-year-old male "associated" with this staffer and the medical
assistant, who is not an employee there, obtained a 20-day prescription
on May 13 for 120 pills of hydrocodone. A doctor at the clinic, Molly
Vosburg, told police that "people can only take so much Tylenol
(hydrocodone contains acetaminophen) before it starts to do damage to
the liver," the affidavit states, and that the prescriptions were
excessive.
Another employee, a 32-year-old woman, obtained 736 hydrocodone pills from September 2008 through July, the document states.
The affidavit for a search warrant, which was authorized earlier this
month by District Judge Daniel Sanchez, was used to collect evidence at
the pharmacy where two of the former employees got their prescriptions
filled, Fairview Pharmacy in Española.
Los Alamos police Capt. Randy Foster said Wednesday that "there are no
immediate plans for charges, but there is the potential for charges" in
the future.
"We're checking to see who may have been involved, and who may not have
been involved and following up to see if there was any criminal
wrongdoing on anyone's part," Foster said.
Foster also said it is premature for police to suggest that the pills were obtained for trafficking purposes.
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