NH physician assistant gets four years in federal prison for fentanyl kickback scheme | Crime

Christopher Clough, 45, of Dover was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Concord for participating in a scheme where he received kickbacks in exchange for prescribing a powerful fentanyl spray to patients in violation of federal law, U.S. Atty. Scott Murray announced.

According to court filings and statements made in court, Clough worked as a physician assistant in New Hampshire. After being approached by a representative of a drug manufacturer in June of 2013, he became a frequent prescriber of a fentanyl spray that had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat breakthrough cancer pain.

From June of 2013 through the fall of 2014, Clough wrote more than 750 prescriptions for the fentanyl spray in the Granite State, including more than 215 prescriptions for Medicare patients and several more for Tricare patients.

The Medicare program paid over $2.1 million for these prescriptions, and Tricare paid nearly $600,000.

According to court documents, while Clough was writing these prescriptions the drug manufacturer paid him to serve as a speaker at more than 40 programs at a rate of approximately $1,000 per event. Federal officials said in many instances the programs were merely “sham events” where Clough was paid to have dinner with employees or representatives of the pharmaceutical company. Clough failed to give any kind of presentation about the drug during most of the dinners, officials said.

Clough and others often forged signatures of attendees on sign-in sheets in an effort to make the dinners appear to be legitimate. Evidence at trial demonstrated that Clough received over $49,000 in payments from the drug manufacturer.

Clough frequently prescribed the drug for patients who did not have breakthrough cancer pain, often starting patients on high doses of the addictive fentanyl spray. He rebuffed patients and their family members who stated that they no longer wanted the drug, officials said.

Clough was convicted of one count of conspiracy and seven counts of receipt of kickbacks in relation to a federal healthcare program. A jury found Clough guilty on Dec. 18, 2018 following a six-day trial.

“Mr. Clough’s actions were a disturbing betrayal of his patients’ trust,” said Murray. “Rather than making his prescribing decisions based upon the needs of his patients, his decisions were tainted by the kickbacks he was paid by a pharmaceutical company. This substantial sentence should serve as a warning to all health care providers in New Hampshire that there will be severe consequences if they choose to engage in criminal conduct.”

“Mr. Clough is no better than a street level drug dealer,” said Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Boston Division. “He exploited his patients, betrayed their trust, and accepted kickbacks for his own personal enrichment. Today’s sentence marks an important step in holding doctors responsible for their role in fueling the opioid epidemic and be assured, the FBI will continue to identify and bring to justice doctors like him whose practices promote fraud with a total disregard for patient safety.”

“Medical professionals taking thinly-veiled bribes to overprescribe opioids threaten the lives of patients for personal gain,” said Phillip Coyne, Special Agent in Charge for the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “OIG, along with our law enforcement partners, will ensure that criminals like Clough pay the price for their actions.”