Can we ever believe anything the government charges a pain management physician with? I don’t think so. Here is a case of a doctor being charged with schemes involving kickbacks for patient referrals and tax evasion. Manoj Patharkar, MD 45, was a Physiatrist (Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation) in Edison NJ. In spite of the fact that he accepted a plea, how much can we believe is true?  As a victim of taking a plea to government charges for something that wasn’t true in order to avoid a life-destroying trial, I hesitate to believe any of this that has been reported.

Why?  First let’s look at the amount of money. He pleaded guilty to concealing roughly $3.6 million in income from his medical practices to evade taxes, paying kickbacks of up to $1.5 million to 13 other doctors. He was charged with first-degree conspiracy, first-degree money laundering, seven counts of third-degree filing fraudulent tax returns, and three counts of third-degree failure to pay taxes. He supposedly paid “phantom” employees to reduce his income tax obligations and then deposited checks for medical services into his personal bank account. His accountant was supposedly in on the fraud for a kickback.

I’m sorry, but all of this seems a bit far-fetched to me. I know from personal experience how the government can twist numbers. At my trial, they used my books, which showed a real income for myself of no more than $24,000 per year, to make a claim to the jury that I was “in it for the money”. The numbers they are throwing around here are just too big to be real. Another thing the government likes to do is add up all the money a doctor has received from government insurance, claim fraud, and then order all that money be returned. In other words, the doctor takes care of government-insured patients for all the years in practice for free. The government even charges fines for the supposed “fraud”, which means the doctor actually pays for the privilege of treating their patients. Here, Dr. Patharkar will be required to pay an anti-money laundering penalty of $500,000, Doctors need to stop taking government insurance across the board.

In my opinion, the REAL reason for the attack lies in the fact that he was also accused of “indiscriminately” prescribing a form of fentanyl called Subsys to a patient who overdosed. Being an independent minority pain management physician, the government just wants to shut him down and will use whatever trumped up charges that will do the job. I consider the timing of the charges to be very telling. If you have a possible charge of contributing to the death of a patient, which could give up to 30 year incarceration, it isn’t surprising that he would plead to the charges listed. However, what he possibly didn’t expect was that in Nov, 2016, the state of New Jersey revoked his license to practice permanently, and he was forced to close his practice.

The medical incongruity here is that Subsys was approved by the FDA for treating cancer pain. But that is how every drug gets its foot in the door—get approval for one thing. Then doctors have the “privilege” of using the drug off label for whatever it works on. For example, Neurontin was approved for seizures. It is now used for general pain syndromes. Pain is pain. Being approved for cancer pain gives any doctor the choice of using the drug for non-cancer pain, and it shouldn’t cause a doctor to be charged criminally.

 But the government makes off-label use sound bad: “Dr. Patharkar recklessly ignored the well-established risks associated with Subsys, and put his patients in grave danger of overdose or death by flouting the strict rules for prescribing it,” said Steve Lee, director of the state Division of Consumer Affairs. There aren’t any more risks with Subsys used correctly than any other immediate-release opioid.

Patharkar was the second doctor in the state accused of prescribing Subsys off-label. But the government is actively looking for people to turn other doctors in by telling them to contact them. That’s where the money is—attack the doctors. A record-number thirty-one doctors were attacked in New Jersey alone in 2016 for prescribing opioids.

Dr. Patharkar was supposed to be sentenced January 23, 2017 but there is no notice of such on the internet and he is not listed as an inmate in the NJ prison system. Media reports are very unclear, with another possible attack in 2020. A friend does say he spent time in the New Jersey prison, but has since been released. Dr. Patharkar, you need to step forward and get involved in ending these attacks.

Anyone in communication with him, please tell him to work on forgiveness and when he is ready, join us in the effort to restore humanity to the nation.

Addendum from the author:

I have failed in my mission to end these attacks on doctors and pain patients. Through John Bevere’s book The Bait of Satan, I have figured out why—my lack of forgiveness to those who attacked me. As in Mark 11: 24-26:

“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”

And when you do not do the will of the Father, you are estranged from him and he will ignore you.  So we all must forgive the agents who attacked us in order for things to be made right through any of our works.

Jesus said

“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”

But we cannot lay down our lives for God unless we know Him well enough to trust Him. We must have the assurance that He would never do anything to harm us. He always looks out for what He knows is in our best interest. As a nation, those of us suffering from these attacks must understand that we are serving as God’s messengers of love.  We must forgive those who persecute us and love them instead, following God’s will for us. Then and only then will we see fruits from our labor.

So I hope that everyone who has suffered from what happened to the doctor can trust the Lord, forgive those who have hurt you, and help bring this country back to the God-fearing country that our forefathers founded. Then, and only then, can you be a part of the effort to stop these attacks. I look forward to that day.