Author: WorkCompAcademy

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced.that a former civilian employee of the Los Angeles Police Department pleaded guilty to one felony count of insurance fraud.

Deputy District Attorney Arunas Sodonis of the Healthcare Fraud Division said Gerald Ray Pulley (DOB – 12/5/66),had been on temporary disability leave and was cleared to go back to work in February 2017, but he didn’t return to his job.

Instead, Pulley allegedly returned to his other job working as a security guard while continuing to receive disability benefits from the police department, Sodonis said.

Pulley, who worked as a senior clerk typist, will have the charge reduced to a misdemeanor if he pays restitution of $3,491 and does 50 hours of community service as part of the negotiated plea agreement.

He is scheduled to return for a sentencing hearing on July 12, 2019, in Department 50 of the Foltz Criminal Justice Center.

Pulley resigned from the LAPD in March.

Case BA464228 was investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department’s Special Operations Division, Workers’ Compensation Fraud Unit.

The Division of Workers’ Compensation announced the formation of the Pharmacy and Therapeutics (P&T) Committee.

The P&T Committee is established pursuant to Assembly Bill No. 1124 (2015) as an advisory body that will consult with the DWC Administrative Director on updates to the Medical Treatment Utilization Schedule Drug Formulary.

The committee’s first meeting will be held on Wednesday, September 26 from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Elihu M. Harris State Building, conference room #1 on the second floor, located at 1515 Clay Street in Oakland. The P&T Committee will be chaired by DWC Executive Medical Director Raymond Meister, M.D. The six appointees are California-licensed medical doctors and pharmacists.

“We were fortunate to receive applications from many distinguished physicians and pharmacists for this committee and selected a very well qualified team for this important work,” said Dr. Meister. “DWC appreciates the commitment of these volunteer committee members and looks forward to a productive collaboration that will improve the therapeutic outcomes for the many injured workers that rely on the MTUS Drug Formulary.”

Each member of the P&T Committee will serve a term of two years and remain in the position until the selection of a successor. The current committee members are:

— Lori A. Reisner, Pharm.D.
— Todd Shinohara, Pharm.D.
— Raymond Tan, Pharm.D.
— Basil R. Besh, M.D.
— Rajiv P. Das, M.D.
— Steven Feinberg, M.D.

The agenda and further information regarding the P&T Committee meeting will be posted on the DWC MTUS Drug Formulary web page at least 10 days prior to the meeting and will also be distributed to the DWC Newsline mailing list.

The public may submit questions or comments about the formulary to the DWC MTUS Drug Formulary email inbox: formulary@dir.ca.gov.

The leader of a narcotics distribution ring that imported a powerful fentanyl analogue from China and produced hundreds of thousands of opioid pills that were distributed in bulk across the nation was sentenced yesterday to 320 months in federal prison.

Gary Resnik, 33, of Long Beach, led a conspiracy that imported acetylfentanyl, a drug very similar to fentanyl, a powerful and highly addictive opioid. Acetylfentanyl, which is many times more potent that heroin, is not approved for any legal use in the United States.

Resnik pled guilty in August 2017 to two felony offenses – conspiracy to manufacture and distribute narcotics (including acetylfentanyl and ecstasy), and possession with the intent to distribute acetylfentanyl.

According to court documents, Resnik “was the leader of a conspiracy to manufacture, possess with intent to distribute, and distribute hundreds of thousands of pills designed to look like legitimate pharmaceuticals such as Vicodin and OxyContin, but which actually contained highly potent, illegal drugs that defendant imported from China,” including acetylfentanyl, ecstasy, alprazolam, and a designer drug known on the street as PVP.

“Resnik led a sophisticated operation that used dangerous Chinese-made chemicals to manufacture counterfeit pharmaceuticals,” said United States Attorney Nick Hanna. “Through his makeshift labs, he put thousands of fentanyl analogue pills on the streets, risking the lives of unsuspecting people. This sentence is well-deserved.”

When he pled guilty last year, Resnik admitted to importing from China bulk chemicals, including acetylfentanyl, that were used to manufacture opioid pills. His drug organization also illegally imported pill presses from China that were used to make pills in homemade labs in a Long Beach storage unit and Baldwin Park house. Resnik acknowledged that drug enforcement agents seized over 11 kilograms of acetylfentanyl from the Long Beach lab in addition to other large quantities of acetylfentanyl and other illegal drugs from both labs.

“Mr. Resnik preyed on our communities by flooding our streets with fentanyl. Today’s lengthy prison sentence is appropriate and further emphasizes the dangers that fentanyl and opioids pose to our communities,” said DEA Los Angeles Acting Special Agent in Charge Daniel C. Comeaux. “The DEA will tirelessly collaborate with our local, state and federal counterparts to take vicious drug traffickers, like Mr. Resnik, off the street.”

Over the course of nine months in 2015 and 2016, Resnik’s organization sold approximately 40,000 to 45,000 pills each month, for between $4 to $8 per pill, according to prosecutors.

On one occasion during the course of an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, authorities seized narcotics – including thousands of opioid pills containing acetylfentanyl, alprazolam pills, and ecstasy pills – from a man who had just purchased the drugs from members of the drug-trafficking organization operated by Resnick.

A co-defendant in this case – Christopher Bowen, 32, of downtown Los Angeles – was sentenced in May of this year to 320 months in federal prison for participating in the drug-trafficking conspiracy.

Cal/OSHA has issued citations to marine cargo handler SSA Pacific Inc. for willful and serious safety violations following the investigation of a fatal forklift accident at the Port of San Diego.

On January 3, Phillip Vargas, 54, a longshoreman, was driving a forklift into a transit shed when he collided with a concrete support column and suffered fatal injuries after being thrown from the forklift. The accident took place at the 10th Avenue Marine Terminal at the Port of San Diego, California.

Vargas’ family says he was a third-generation longshoreman who worked on the waterfront since the age of 16.

Cal/OSHA’s investigation found that the employee was not wearing a seatbelt and that the forklift had multiple safety devices disabled, including a seatbelt warning buzzer and mast interlock system designed to disconnect power from the hydraulic lift when the operator is unseated.

‘Forklift safety and training of operators must be taken seriously,’ said Cal/OSHA Chief Juliann Sum. ‘Employers must ensure that seat belts are used and that safety devices such as warning systems to ensure seat belt use are not altered.’

Cal/OSHA issued six citations totaling $205,235 in proposed penalties to SSA Pacific Inc., a division of Seattle-based international marine cargo handler SSA Marine. The citations issued included four serious violations for the employer’s failure to ensure that forklift operators use seatbelts, properly maintain and inspect forklifts, ensure operators were effectively trained and for improperly altering forklift safety features. A general violation was cited for the employer’s failure to establish and maintain an effective heat illness prevention plan.

SSA Pacific was also issued a citation for a willful-serious violation as the employer failed to ensure workers perform a forklift safety check at the beginning of each shift and report unsafe conditions, a violation the company was cited for in 2016 following an accident inspection at the Port of Long Beach.

The incident in 2016 occurred when two workers improperly attempted to lift a 15-ton forklift from the hatch of a ship with a crane. One worker was hospitalized overnight for injuries to his ribs and lungs when he was pinned by the mast of the running forklift.

A citation is classified as willful when evidence indicates that the employer committed an intentional and knowing violation, or was aware that a hazardous condition existed and made no reasonable effort to eliminate it. A citation is classified as serious when there is a realistic possibility that death or serious harm could result from the actual hazard created by the violation.

Forklift safety requirements are summarized on page 65 of Cal/OSHA’s Pocket Guide for the Construction Industry.

Reuters reports that Israeli pharmaceuticals company PainReform has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin late-stage clinical studies for a pain relief drug that is a departure from opiate-based narcotics, it said on Tuesday.

Many patients today dealing with pain after surgery are prescribed opioids, which can be highly addictive and are at the heart of a costly health crisis in the United States.

PainReform said the FDA had given it a green light to carry out two Phase 3 trials on its product PRF-110, which prolongs the action of a local analgesic, or painkiller, called ropivacaine. The studies will focus on post-operative pain relief in soft and hard tissue.

The drug is administered during surgery, before the wound is sutured. An earlier study showed PRF-110 was able to relieve pain for up to 72 hours – 10 times longer than the current standard of care, PainReform said.

This is a crucial period when pain is maximal and opioids are often given, said Chief Executive Eli Hazum.

“This kind of drug can help delay or prevent the prescription of opiates,” he told Reuters.

PainReform estimates the market potential for such treatment at $5 billion.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement on Monday the agency “remains focused on striking the right balance between reducing the rate of new addiction by decreasing exposure to opioids and rationalizing prescribing, while still enabling appropriate access to those patients who have legitimate medical need for these medicines”.

Should PainReform’s treatment pass its trials, results for which Hazum estimated could come within a year after they start, it would compete with other non-opiate drugs like Heron Therapeutics’ HTX-011, which just finished Phase 3 studies.

“This market will not depend on a single drug,” Hazum said.

The company has raised $12 million and is looking for an additional $15 million before beginning the trials, which focus on bunion and hernia operations.

It would consider an initial public offering in New York after the trials are finished, or even at the time of interim results, which could be after about six months, Hazum said.