What I warned about in my comments on the new state laws in Oregon has happened, but Washington State is the first. Laws took effect in 2012 in Washington which require doctors to incorporate safeguards into their practices, including close supervision, to minimize the potential for abuse and diversion of controlled substances. A copy of that law is available on the page http://doctorsofcourage.org/index.php/state-law/washington-states-standard-of-care-law/
On July 14, 2016, the Washington State Medical Commission suspended the license of Dr. Frank Li, 48, a pain management specialist, and revoked the agreement for 5 physician assistants to practice under his authority because of “poor standards” at his pain centers, accusing him of “consistent violations of the standard of care.” So now the attacks on physicians criminally with “standard of care” charges has begun. As many as 60 doctors or other health care providers who have worked for Dr. Li’s Seattle Pain Centers since 2013 are under investigation.
The attack based on standard of care is very generic, as I predicted it would be. The charges allege Li
- committed unprofessional conduct in violation of state regulations for chronic, non-cancer pain management, including rules designed to prevent opiate abuse, overdose and death,
- failed to conduct proper patient evaluation,
- failed to provide informed consent to patients or their families,
- failed to conduct proper reviews and consultations for opiate therapy,
- exposed chronic pain patients to risk of harm for addiction or overdose,
- failed to properly monitor drug use and evaluate patients to determine whether opiates were needed,
- failed to consider patients’ other risk factors,
- and didn’t investigate patient deaths.
Basically those charges could be filed on any doctor’s practice in America. In the standard phrasing of the Controlled Substance Act to justify this illegal action, Micah Matthews, deputy director of the Washington state Medical Quality Assurance Commission stated “I guess what I would call it is classic ‘pill mill’ behavior.” Nothing in the above listed charges would substantiate that comparison. But once these “standard of care” laws are passed by Congress, the Feds are going to jump all over this gravy train.
As is standard with any pain management practice, thirteen complaints had been filed with the medical commission since 2010. These type of complaints are usually from disgruntled patients that have been discharged. The records show eleven of the complaints were closed after no violations could be verified. Two complaints filed in 2015 remain open: one from the Health Care Authority and one from the state Attorney General’s Office’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. This is standard action when a doctor is targeted—the government works with the Medical Board to raise issues for review. And when they have nothing substantial to base it on, they always go for insurance fraud.
Supposedly the investigation of the deaths of 18 patients between 2010 and 2015 showed “an egregious pattern of substandard medical care and disregard by Dr. Li and his providers for patient health and safety.” Sixteen of the patients supposedly had “acute drug intoxication” listed as a possible cause of death. That cause of death is listed on anyone with controlled drugs in their system at the time of death, whether at a toxic level or not. Two others supposedly had serious health conditions that the pain treatment center disregarded. In reality, one patient died in a car accident and another died from a stroke, but both received opiates from Seattle Pain Centers. These “multiple, serious health conditions” could again, apply to any patient of any physician.
Li is the medical director and owner of Seattle Pain Center which has 8 pain treatment centers in the state, with locations in Seattle, Renton, Everett, Tacoma, Olympia, Spokane, Poulsbo and Vancouver. He also operates a clinic in Beverly Hills, California that might also be affected. 25,000 patients will be affected by this action. They were simply told by the state Department of Health to contact their health insurance company and primary care provider to minimize disruptions in their care. You can bet their care is going to be disrupted big time. But Micah Matthews, deputy director of the Washington state Medical Quality Assurance Commission (MQAC) was quoted as saying “There shouldn’t be an immediate disruption,” One patient suffering from chronic back pain said “I’m scared wondering where am I going to go now.”
When they have nothing else to go in, the government always uses insurance fraud to attack anyone they target. In this case, they bring up issues including
- using minimally trained staff and allowing them to bill under the names of established providers
- excessive use of urine drug screens to maximize profit, and
- seeking out Medicaid patients to maximize billing for excessive or unnecessary tests or visits.
Give me a break! You don’t even make enough to pay the bills with Medicaid reimbursement. When a doctor takes care of Medicaid patients, it is because he has a heart, not because he is financially motivated.
But Matthews makes the standard inflammatory comment “It seems clear that this business practices was to generate billings and maximize profits over patient safety.”
My evaluation of this is that we have a good, caring physician basically being attacked on trumped up charges per the plan of the government when the “standard of care” laws were written in order to confiscate assets. Oh, and if chronic pain patients die as a result, they’ll cover it up as part of the “heroin epidemic”.
Addendum:
Dr. Li’s suspension was continued into 2018, forcing him to close all of his medical clinics, forcing thousands of patients to the street for self-treatment. But in March, 2018, he settled with the Board of Medicine with a 1 year suspension and then some probationary requirements. The agreement can be seen HERE. Then in May, 2020, he settled with the state and feds for their charges of medically unnecessary urine drug tests, paying them $2.85 million.
By now Dr. Li should be able to practice again. And he should be able to help in the fight to regain his profession. So where is he? 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.
Linda Cheek is a teacher and disenfranchised medical doctor, turned activist, author, and speaker. A victim of prosecutorial misconduct and outright law-breaking of the government agencies DEA, DHHS, and DOJ, she hopes to be a part of exonerating all doctors illegally attacked through the Controlled Substance Act. She holds the key to success, as she can offset the government propaganda that drugs cause addiction with the truth: The REAL Cause of Drug Abuse.
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I also went to Seattle pain center and read the complaint against Dr. LI, on each count it said “the person filled a script from SPC within 30 days of their death” not one said the prescription caused the death. WA tried to pass the law oregon is trying to pass to deny pain meds to Medicaid patients, it didn’t pass do they used the DEA to shut down clinics that accept Medicaid, if fact he serviced approx 30,000 people who lost care the day they shut down, the letter sent out to drs by the medical commission said 800 patients will need new drs, because the others were on Medicaid and they did not intend to let anyone take them on. So 29,200 people were forced off of opioids with no taper. Thousands committed suicide but only one is talked about because he made the paper. Dr Li and his practitioners were following the law and force tapering everyone, even though it caused harm to them, they had no choice and they still shut them down because in one swoop they cut almost 30 000 people off of pain meds, the Everett clinic took some patients on, they said they had a meeting and decided ALL SPC patients would be forced off, they would NOT consider diagnosis they didn’t care your diagnosis, ALL SPC patients were to be forced tappered OFF. This was a scam, WA said they would save 13mil by denying all workers comp patients pain meds, just think of the savings from Medicaid and Medicare and the more that commit suicide the more money they save! Genocide by suicide.
I found out just a few weeks ago that Dr. Li reached a settlement with the WA Dept. of Health in March. Including a link to Seattle Times article. I’m sorry I do not know Dr. Li’s plans for the future. Wishing you all the best.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/in-wake-of-deaths-pain-doctor-agrees-to-face-a-lifetime-of-restrictions/
One of the biggest complaints against Dr. Li seems to be Medicare/Medicaid related. When the “laws” were passed in 2012 there were a large number of people were told that their Doctor and the Clinic he/she worked for no longer treated chronic pain. The only option was Pain Management. If you were on Medicare it could take up to a week for the referral coordinator to get with you regarding a referral. If you were lucky you got an appointment somewhere in the next two months. “Call immediately! They are swamped with incoming patients, this is the only one still taking Medicare.” Seattle Pain Centers took patients that needed care, they took the ones whose only failing was their insurance (a.k.a the size of their bank accounts). So yes they had a lot of Medicare/Medicaid patients. It wasn’t because they were taking the government for “lot’s of money”, but because other pain clinics wouldn’t take Medicare and I assume Medicaid.
A lot of you who read this will say I don’t know what I’m talking about. But I saw it first hand, I walked it with one of the people who was on Medicare. Did he SEEK out Medicare/Medicaid patents? NO. He’s the only one who would take them!
Yes, it was the same in my area, and I was the only one that would take Medicare/Medicaid. They hit me with fraud charges too, in the beginning, which I pleaded to even though I was innocent. But they didn’t drop it. They then fabricated through perjury more charges which eventually put me in prison. I know what you are saying is the truth. Hopefully people will read and learn.
I went for my first meeting with the Everett Pain Clinic. They don’t call it that which is just as well. I don’t want their attention. The current allegations THERE are that he was making huge sums by not actually running the UA tests and was just pocketing the money. The alleged body count now is approaching 200. (Can anyone confirm or deny?) Frankly, I like to drink once in awhile, and since my pain meds which I lived with at almost twice my current dosage for about 10 years with no trouble (including 6 months of heavy drinking when my wife died) are now at about 55% of their previous levels, I honestly asses the threat of death from this source at around nil. Anyway, if I slipped up, the clinic was right on it.
More on the Everett version, they have hired extra staff because of the fall of the clinic. They send their UA’s to Spokane so I got no Scrip at this first meeting and if they find any alcohol in the test, the consequences sound dire, but not specific. Before my visit they had indicated that they wouldn’t mess with my current dosages for some bridge period, ( a month between initial interview to actual provider visit) so I had assumed that this is the period that they meant and am desperately trying to find someplace better. BUT while at first they had made it sound like this honeymoon would last a month, it sounded more like a week by the time I left, and honestly the whole biz is unclear. They were talking about a med reduction of 10% a visit! Per week, per month, what? Is the goal total reduction? What? Right now any further reduction puts me in a nursing home permanently. They can exempt you I have heard if they send you to one of the 5 “Pain Experts” in the state, but these characters ascribe to the sympathetic magic version of reality in which lowering the pain meds also lowers the pain. The only chronic pain condition that they seem to recognise is cancer and not all of the doctors that.
Now that we are all having to find new pain clinics the search is the very same all over again! And some of the clinics will not even take Dr. Li’s patients. A friend and I who were both patients of Dr. Li’s, are in the process of organizing a movement of sorts to fight the tyranny of the DEA on chronic pain patients and competent, compassionate doctors such as Dr Li. If you are interested, send me an email at [email protected] and let me know.
No good deed goes unpunished in this hostile regulatory environment
Dear Linda,
My daughter came across this and forwarded to me as she has been a patient of Dr. Li since he opened his Renton clinic. Actually we were one of the first to sign up for an appointment at a Tame the Pain seminar that Dr. Li was presenting along with Medtronic, who is the maker of the pain pump that my daughter eventually had implanted. Being one of his first patients we were always seen by Dr. Li which we appreciated, especially since my daughter had many bad experiences with other doctors who didn’t seem to understand the concept of chronic pain and instead would accuse her of being “a drug seeker”. Needless to say those doctors were told their services would no longer be required and she would suffer because she was unable to find someone to help her. Dr. Li was a godsend for us as we were at the end of our rope. My daughter has suffered from chronic pain since the third grade in elementary school due to foot and ankle problems. After six surgeries as a child and teenager to try and fix the problem, she is now a 30 year old young women who missed out on the best years of her life due to chronic pain. The surgeries left her with one of her hips misaligned, which has resulted in degenerative disc disease. When we decided to go and see Dr. Li about options for chronic pain management, this was not something we took lightly. After watching my child take oral pain medication for so many years and her tolerance level for it grow so that it was no longer helping her was very hard to watch. Believe me no parent likes to see their child in pain, and chronic pain can be even worse in that you can’t see it and so many people don’t understand the concept of what exactly chronic pain is. I had recently done a Surgical Technologist surgical rotation for certification and was somewhat familiar with the concept of the intrathecal pump and the nerve stimulators that were being implanted for many reasons, not just chronic pain, and wanted to find out more and see if maybe my daughter would be a candidate. I’d like to be able to say that we had our appointment with Dr. Li and were immediately scheduled for surgery for the pump, but that was not the case. We learned that it can be a long process to determine if a patient is a candidate for the device and after almost two years we were finally told my daughter would get the trial for the pump and if that was successful we would be scheduled for surgery. It has been four years since my daughter got her pain pump and her quality of life has gotten better over time. She still has pain, but it is not so unrelenting that she has to take oral medication to supplement the medication in her pump. After implantation it took another almost two years to get the dosage to where it needed to be for her to be able to function again. This might sound like an outrageous amount of time to finally be at a place where my daughter can finally have a life and not be in bed sleeping off the effects of the oral medications she took for many years but it was worth it. As far as the issue of the urine tests go, I felt it was very responsible of Dr. Li and his staff to perform them. First and foremost it was a safeguard to make sure my daughter was not pregnant and secondly, we entered into a drug contract with Dr. Li that my daughter would not take any other pain medications that were not prescribed by him. We are now at a point where my daughter has been able to go in every six months for pump refills and will only need to someday have the pump replaced as they have a limited battery lifetime in them.
When I first read the news about Dr. Li I have to admit that I was very conflicted. I had trusted this man who has been “accused” of being responsible for the deaths of patients, yet I felt he had saved my daughter’s life. I immediately got angry and told my daughter “I guess this is what happens when you get greedy”, but it still didn’t make much sense to me. Dr. Li always had time to explain anything we didn’t understand, and he also let me hold my daughters hand when she had the pump trial done as it was painful and she was very scared. Even though it was not standard procedure, he made sure that the needs of my daughter were taken care of by allowing me to be with her.
Apparently this makes for sensational news headlines and I don’t profess to know all the facts. However, I do know that my daughter and I will be forever grateful for the chance meeting with Dr. Li and the opportunity for my daughter to have as normal a life as possible living with chronic pain. As an aside, my daughter recently gave birth to a beautiful baby girl and she feels so blessed because she wasn’t sure she would ever be in a position to have a child due to pain that a pregnancy may cause her. I will continue to stand by my feelings of gratitude for Dr. Li especially since in our country you are innocent until proven guilty.
Thank you for your letter of support. Yes, you cannot believe the propaganda being spread by the media. They will take anything and spin it in as negative a frame as possible. Your experience with Dr. Li is more likely the norm rather than the exception.
This could very well be a simple extension on the DEAs war on drugs. Under the new controlled substance prescribing laws, patients must submit to “surprise” urine screens, billed to insurance to the tune of from a couple hundred dollars to $1200+ per pop. This is a whole, despicable industry that has sprung up out of the so-called war on drugs and the new restrictive prescribing laws to supposedly cut down on opioid deaths. The state and the DEA use circular reasoning to blame heroine deaths on opioid drugs, yet the DEA has created a situation where those who can’t get MD care and monitoring of their pain diagnosis, have nowhere else to turn to have a life with any semblance of quality–but to heroine, which is cheaper and easier to obtain. Heroine is also much, much more dangerous. As is fentanyl and many of the other street drugs which legitimate pain patients are forced to turn to. Without any pain management to make a life worth living, many choose suicide. Many, probably MOST, of our pain doctors are caring providers who understand how untreated or inadequately treated pain can make a life not worth living. Only a person who has never been in chronic, unrelenting pain would argue otherwise. The DEA rips life-saving–yes, LIFE-SAVING–opioids out of the hands of responsible users, ( the vast majority of whom never have a problem with them), knowing there is NOTHING else out there that will help. Until research dollars are put into the study of pain in its many forms, and the pathways involved in the myriad types of pain, and then into studies on how to effectively treat pain, it is inhumane to do what the DEA is doing. I hope many investigations are done to uncover the DEA sham for what it is.
They want us to commit suicide because we are the scum of the earth people in pain their reasoning is that of a toddler, pain meds don’t make people better? Really hum, you mean pain meds don’t cure disease’s No they don’t they help the people the doctors can’t help so the dont kill themselves, this is discusting, inhumane and at the very least cruel! The letter sent out to drs in wa to address the closure only included 8,000 patients they have no intention of helping the other 17,000 patient but according to their letter the withdrawals probably won’t kill them! They got together and said how can we line our pockets with tax and workers comp dollars and wa la denied pain meds to people who need them…..the law states that drs should never give pain meds unless for active cancer or end of life..not for surgery, car accidents painful diseases this is population control while lining their pockets!!!
I know its 2021 but I just stumbled across these articles because I was looking for a doctor that believed me. I’m only on 20 milligrams of oxi and my current doctor is taking me off next week.
Screw this I’m getting a lawyer my quality of life has plummeted I cant work there for I will be HOMELESS soon. My god what is wrong with these people?
I’m so sorry this happened to you and any other doctor that actually tried to help us I’m so deeply sorry…
I’m sorry you will soon be without pain management. I’ve warned about this for 4 years now. To get pain management back, you (and everyone else) need to learn what will change things–what I teach–and pass it on to everyone. Get signed up for our newsletter, but wait until I have the new list to offer by the end of the week. Join the membership site. Lots of benefits to you with that, and being able to get the word out to more legislators on a regular basis.
I co-founded a run a nonprofit organization that has been one of the most depressing things I ever could have done. Initially, our organization started out as an investigative citizen journalism publisher, working with regular bloggers that we selected, trained and provided with resources. We did news coverage differently, using we called Cause Narrated Journalism, looking for positive stories of average people accomplishing imposible feats, hoping to inspire others to go out and at least try to make an impact. Sounds fun, right? Well, good luck finding such stories that don’t somehow include sheer tragedy.
What I found was that the whole idea of America as some great nation was nothing but a lie. The initial reaction and sense of betrayal you felt when you learned about Dr. Li is the real America. Pay closer attention to news stories, and everytime you hear someone say the line “innocense until proven guilty,” and listen for the “but.” We’ve come to use that line in an almost sarcastic manner, yet still convince ourselves we live in in a nation where innocense until proven guilty is still the ideology. How the government pulled this trick is cleaver, but not in line with a Democracy.
Most people accused of a crime, are “guilty” and sentenced, but they never saw the likes of a Jury. Over 95% of all criminal cases in this country end not with a trial, but with a plea deal. Threatened with extensive sentences, loss of benefits, housing, you name it, and never knowing whay a Jury might do, innocent or not, most people have no other choice but to take the plea. The country has cut the budgets for public defenders so much, there’s backlogs where some people have been held for as long as ten years on low level charges waiting (on the long end, but best case is maybe a year). It seems like there’s no way any innocent person would plead guilty to a crime theuy didn’t commit, but once you realize it doesn’t matter because your screwed either way, you take the plea.
So people get charged, time drags on, and the next update is that the person is either incarcerated, or plead guilty, so logic tells us, huh, guess they did it. Add to that, the fact that the charges always happen to be a sin the public can’t forgive, like sex offender or drug dealer, so on, we’re prone to not even giving them the benefit of the doubt. Doesn’t matter that the guy who exposed himself to a toddler was really just a homeless man going to the bathroom, nope, sex offender, throw him away. Doctor pushing drugs, nope, those drugs get on the street and pose a risk to our children, so lock him up to.
It gets worse, but I think you get the idea.
I understand. I am a victim of the plea agreement by an innocent person. And I found out in prison that probably 1/4 of the people there are also innocent but copped a plea because of the reasons you mentioned, or they didn’t want their family dragged through the mud so they pleaded guilty to save them. We need to change the laws. If the government offers you a plea and you choose trial instead, you shouldn’t have to spend any more time in prison than the plea agreement gave you. That would save a lot of innocent people taking a plea because of the possibility of spending a lot more time incarcerated. And it would make sure that the people they charge are actually guilty. Right now the government can charge anyone with anything and get most people to plea. So that is how the job security works and keeps the Justice Department employed.
Hi: I totally agree with you. I am also an innocent victim who were forced to plea in order to save the family from going through the trial horror and uncertainties.
Hello Doctor, you need to get on board the work being done to stop this atrocity. Join our letter-writing campaign which I am building on the website under Call to Action. I will be putting the lists of contact information for senators and congressmen on the website today. You could help me join the data with the https link if you like. Also, you can join American Pain Institute, a pain advocacy group of doctors formed by Dr. Ron Myers who has been attacked, but due to his publicity of his case, the government (state) has backed down and dismissed his charges. If you are a member of any physician organization, ask them to have me talk at their annual conference. Doctors need to understand the evil behind these attacks, and we need to band together. Hope to hear more from you.
I really appreciated your letter, as you described my same experience with Dr. Li. I also have a pain pump and have been his patient since he started his first clinic in Seattle. I wanted to encourage you to write to the state Board of Health regarding Dr. Li. The address is: State of Washington Dept. of Health, Case #M2016-705, Olympia. WA. 98504.
In some ways you and your daughter were very lucky. Not all of the Nurse Practitioners, or whatever their exact title was, were equally gifted or kind, and none of them were willing or able to make executive decisions. It used to be that you had direct contact with a doctor, YOUR doctor, and you could directly express your concerns and your condition was immediately apparent. Since the change in pain policy many doctors left, but pretty much all of the rest have hooked up with a clinic or “center” of some sort (probably to share risks). So picture this, you go in with your daughter for a visit and you tell Dr. Li, ” Doctor, my dear daughter’s pain is horrible! She’s having trouble even getting out of bed!”. The doctor responds with, “I’m sorry to hear that, but due to clinic guidelines and government “advice” we need to lower your daughter’s meds by 60%.” Don’t worry, this won’t be all at once so feel free to tell me what a humanitarian I am.”. That was the rest of the clinic, but hey, who knew this is now how it is everywhere. I was a patient at the clinic for almost 10 years and during that time had about 15 minutes of face time with the doctor. They lowered my meds by about 45% during that period. Now preparing my dinner is agony and I have to schedule a shower with time and maximum med effect so I don’t fall. Now those who are taking over from Dr. Li want another perhaps even more drastic reduction. One of the staff actually suggested exercise, sounds reasonable but I can barely walk and before I hurt my back my fat content was so low that I was banned from public pools. My whole life feels like a death march to Bataan.
I had to go to EC and they got together and decided all dr Li’s patients will be filtered through a NP will not see a dr and as the letter from the state told ALL drs to take all dr Li’s patients off meds PERIOD but reading the fed law they want it stopped for all pain but active cancer and end of life! It’s all about money and they snuck it through using bogus research at the end of each trial they used it says the trial had limitations that if they weren’t present the trial could have came out with the opposite findings! That is criminal!!! They stated that the people who died filled a prescription within 30 days?!?! Yes I fill all my prescriptions monthly is that really all they have!! Lying criminals and the media reports it and the public buys it, it’s thusly unbelievable that this is what they call America be afraid the gov will start putting us down soon if they don’t force us to do it ourselves which is what they want!!
You and I share the same empathy for Dr. Li. He was just so compassionate and genuinely cared about me. However, I didn’t go through a big long waiting time for my surgery. Me being a Federal Employee and had the best Insurance it was approved as soon as I did an consultation with the Representative for the machine. I didn’t want the pain pump I chose the electronic pain stimulator. Nevertheless, the company’s Representative and Doctor that assisted Dr. Li he is the one I found to be horrific. He destroyed my back, not Dr. Li.
I love Dr. Li.
I was a patient at The Seattle Pain Clinic. Since 2012 the whole pain management system in Wa has gone straight down the tubes. First most of the anesthesiologists seemed to disappear. Before I go any further the original bill before the state legislature was to limit pain meds by the quantity of pills a month! This apparently changed. For the past several years I have heard from my primary care physician that “this is really just a big social experiment between those who believe in medication and those who don’t.” Other health care persons keep telling me that there was some huge drug giveaway during the 90’s (this I suppose because pain was temporarily advertised as the least treated condition in the state, not that I ever saw this laxness!)., and that this is the reaction to it.
Dr. Li’s clinics had good and bad points. I over 5 or 6 years only saw the doctor twice and one of those times was to do paperwork. The personnel was not well paid and the clinics were not exactly luxury liners. You receives prescriptions for three months, not meds. So, one for Jan stamped “Fill Jan 27” and one for Feb with the stamp on it “Fill Feb 26” and so forth. You filled out a form and took a Piss test each visit. They have been desperately reducing prescriptions under pressure from drug enforcements. My back is a mess after: 2 catastrophic accidents and one horrible surgery, and a second to complete and repair damage from the first. The last surgery was messed up by a horrible local hospital and I almost lost my legs to gangrene. My med levels still don’t meet state guidelines but I have to pay a guy to do my housework and groceries. I stagger around the house having quit the gym.
The clinic went to hell too, but in a far different way than described in the complaints. The clinic began implementing a dress codes and had a psychologist on staff to calm people down. People were simply beside themselves from pain and the limitations placed upon their lives. When I heard about the deaths I ASSUMED that people were committing suicide. People are desperate. One local “Pain Clinic as a “6-weeks-and-out” policy. “Huh?” This means that no matter what your condition you won’t need meds after six weeks because YOU WILL BE HEALED! Dr. Li’s clinics weren’t perfect, they should have been prescribing more meds, but the government got involved. The charges are ridiculous. I only found out that my doctor was finished on August 3rd from my therapist who had heard through the grapevine. I am playing hookie from finding a new doc as most do not accept Medicare even with a supplemental plan. I’m terrified. I have 2 weeks of meds left.
I’m so sorry for what you’ve had to go through. Please understand that people need to be educated as to what really causes drug abuse–and it’s not the drugs. The cause is current presented on my DVD available on my website http://www.sevenpillarstotalhealth.com (link on the sidebar). I would recommend you get it and share with everyone you know. That is the only way we are goin to turn this around and get the treatment you need.
I’ve been a patient of the Seattle Pain Clinic for about six years, and while I can only speak to my experience, these charges and accusations against Dr. Li and the other providers seem to be more of a witch hunt than anything. Dr. Li isn’t my primary provider, but he was when I first became a patient of the clinic. He treated me with great compassion and empathy, above what one would normally expect.
Having the misfortune of many serious health issues, starting in my late twenties, I’ll be dealing with chronic pain for the rest of my life. My medical history is somewhat of a phenomenon and has mystified most of the physicians who have treated me. Many of my conditions are extraordinarily rare, especially for someone of my age range.
Even when my pain got to be unbearable, I had been resistant to narcotic pain medication. I know people can build up a tolerance for drugs, so I was concerned that by beginning at such a young age, long-term pain management wouldn’t be sustainable over the course of my life. I also hated the foggy and sedative effect that pain medications cause, and while I’m sure that the drugs contributed to some relief from pain, even on higher doses the pain was still often unbearable, so I didn’t see any benefits that made life better. The pain intensified to the point where I contemplated suicide, desperate to escape my misery and constant torment.
My primary care physician, another excellent and caring doctor, referred me to a pain specialist, and after much prodding, I made an appointment with the Seattle Pain Clinic. Dr. Li was the physician I conferred with, and he agreed that oral pain medication such as narcotics and opioids weren’t likely to provide sufficient, if any, pain relief. His suggestion was to implant an intrathecal pain pump which works to relieve chronic pain by inserting small amounts of medicine directly into the intrathecal space ( the area surrounding the spinal cord). Delivering pain medication in this way provides substantial more pain relief with a much lower dose than would be needed in oral form.
Because of my inability to work, my only health coverage was through Medicaid, and they wouldn’t cover the full cost of the pump or the surgical procedure to implant it. I had no money of my own to put toward this treatment, so there was no real hope of getting relief. When Dr. Li learned about my financial difficulties, his first response was not to worry about it; he’d take the loss. All that mattered to him was that I was in extraordinary pain, and he wanted to do everything he could to provide me with some level of relief.
For the entire time, I’ve been under the care of the Seattle Pain Clinic, I have never once encountered any provider who pushed to increased my medication or challenge me in any way when I weighed in on my treatment plan. I am adverse to most any medication that has a foggy or sedative side-effect, along with an over-paranoid fear of building up a resistance to the point where eventually nothing will work to reduce my pain. Hiding pain from an experienced medical professional is a lot harder, I would imagine, then masking the symptoms of an addict. I’ve gone to appointments in pain that were too obvious to hide, and while the provider suggested increasing my dosage, they never persisted when I declined and respected my decisions.
Since getting the pain pump, my pain levels have lowered drastically. There’s still a good deal of pain, and there are moments when it still becomes bearable, but these mere moments, even when lasting a day or two, mark a significant difference from the constant & debilitating pain I suffered before, without any breaks. Before even making the initial appointment with Dr. Li, I had already decided to end my life. I had a plan, and had become so miserable and wracked with pain; it wasn’t even a choice. I couldn’t bear existing with such intense pain, unable to sleep or do anything that resembled living. I doubt Dr. Li knew any of this, and his genuine concern and assurances from our first meeting gave me that glimmer of hope that made me put my suicide plan on hold, which is why I’m still alive today.
People die, it happens. I feel for the families that lost loved ones, but I can’t see any of the wonderful providers at the Seattle Pain Clinic as being reckless or imprudent in caring for & monitoring patients. If you look into some of the details surrounding the deaths, it’s clear that the patients themselves hold much more of the responsibility for their deaths than their medical providers. Failing to take medication as prescribed & mixing medication with alcohol or other narcotics not prescribed to them – these are not things any doctor can control.
States like Washington are losing a great deal of medical professionals that are critical and already in short supply. The Seattle Pain Clinic is one of a few pain clinics in the entire state. The liability of certain fields and professions because of witch hunts and overzealous prosecution and persecution is too much of a burden for many to take on, and as a result, people are suffering. Pain is a form of torture, literally luring you to your death. When chronic pain sufferers have no place to turn, many will eventually take their lives, and those numbers will vastly outnumber the 18 supposed deaths attributed to Dr. Li.
Unless you’re an equally qualified medical practitioner and have a relationship & history with a patient, I think it’s very dangerous and irresponsible to question that professional’s treatment.
You are completely correct. The prosecutors in these cases are not equally qualified. They are only attacking doctors because that’s where the money and promotions are. The only way to change things is to teach people the real cause of drug abuse and fire all of your legislators currently writing laws to make these attacks easier.
Sean! Surely you must be wrong! The deaths attributed to the EVIL DR. LI have now risen to almost 200! I just heard that from a pain “pro” yesterday! Many professionals simply do not believe in long term pain. This makes liability and prescribing easy; 6 weeks and out! I have had debilitating pain since 1999. In many cases my records have been purged. This is the 7th Pain Doctor who has either left the field or been hounded out. The pumps and so forth are not in my future as I scare easily and extensively and have a very heavy skeleton with small clearance between vertebrae and nerve roots. When I heard that there had been deaths I naturally assumed that it was from people whose lives had become intolerable with the last several years of med cuts. You would probably have enough to do the deed right after filling your prescription. It might be interesting to cross check the dates of the deaths with when they last filled their meds. The last time that I went to the Everett branch of the Seattle Pain Clinic they had tried to initiate a dress code ( I mean people were just staggering in. I look at myself and am beginning to resemble that remark. ), and on top of that they had a psychologist on staff to deal with the angry screaming people. They were just desperate because of the med reductions. Were there tweekers? Hard to say. Despite your experience, what I’ve seen is pretty much ALL of the providers beginning with that assumption. When people know that you have meds there are those who will steal them from you. I am the hated patient who has endless documentation, or did, (with time the records are purged), but who doesn’t respond to the alternate treatments that docs are trying to shift people to. The Acupuncture dude practically ripped the damned needle out of my hand when I began convulsive vomiting. That acupuncture really does something weird, but not exactly understood. The guy later said ” That happens in about 20% of the people who try it.”
Hello John, could you please tell me who you heard the “200 deaths” figure from? You can read my other posts on this site to see where I’m coming from, but wanted to let you know that this is something I am researching. I realize that your comments were sarcastic and I can truly relate to some of the things you describe about pain treatment in general. I was a patient of Dr. Li, and I am currently having to find a new pain clinic. I have gone to one and was treated like a drug addict, which I have never been. I do not want to go back to him but I may have to as my pump is overdue to be refilled. I am checking into other clinics as well. I also document everything I take, how I feel, etc. and with Dr. Li that was a virtue. The new dr. I saw told me I was being “too detailed” about my pain! A friend and I are researching the facts about these witch hunts and are looking for other chronic pain patients to join in the fight. If you’re interested in helping this cause you can write to me at [email protected]. We in chronic pain have limited energy but if we all work together hopefully we can affect change. Take care.
I am not aware of, nor do I believe, the claims you’re referring to about there being 200 deaths associated with Dr. Li. Frankly. Even if such claims had any validity, I wouldn’t be moved by them. I’m not a cold-hearted person, I have dedicated the majority of my life as an advocate for humanity. I am, however, informed about the many relevant issues at play here, including the politics that often result in cases just like this. I would have to know the details of each of those 200 supposed patient deaths before making any judgment. I’d want to know the cause of death, what the contributing factors were, and what definitive links exist tying culpability to Dr. Li. The timeline of those deaths would be of significance as well.
Any set of facts or series of events can be manipulated to appear as something they’re not. Law enforcement, and the government, often use these misrepresentations to steer public opinion in their favor. The politics of fear disgust me, and people are far too easily moved to assume guilt based on information and alleged facts that have yet to be confirmed and validated. Let’s also not forget that government policies are responsible for strict compliance laws that limit a doctor’s ability to care for his patients in the way he feels will be most effective.
I agree that the Everett location was an utterly depressing and negative clinic that felt very dehumanizing. When my provider left the Seattle clinic, the only location with providers who accepted Medicare/Medicaid was in Everett, so I transferred there. It was degrading, feeling more like a drug rehabilitation program than a doctor’s office. The whole process disheartened me, and I vowed that I’d rather live (or die) with the pain before subjecting myself to that treatment again. I let my pain pump run dry, which then resulted in withdrawal and severe pain. Luckily, there was a new provider at my previous clinic by that time, so I was fortunate to be able to return to the Seattle office – which had a much, much different atmosphere.
The government has severely damaged the doctor/patient relationship in many fields of practice, and this works against the patient and sometimes even the medical providers themselves. Being subjected to suspicion or treated like criminal seeking drugs is horrible, and this feeling often causes patients to hold back information in an attempt to dispell the stereotype. For instance, I always underplayed my actual level of pain, afraid that if I complained about the much higher level of pain I was suffering, I’d appear to be a drug-seeker. Of course, I’m always worried about increasing any of my meds, but the point is that a high degree of trust must exist between doctors and patients for optimal healthcare.
Dr. Li took on patients that no other provider would, not because those patients were high risk, but because of their insurance coverage (or lack thereof). Medicaid & Medicare patients are similar to those without any medical coverage because it can be so difficult to find health care providers willing to accept either. In many circumstances, patients without health insurance are in better positions than those with Medicaid or Medicare because they can either pay out of pocket or set up financial arrangements, which is strictly prohibited to those under government assistance. Taking on patients with government insurance isn’t profitable, so to provide the best care possible to a large patient base, cutbacks had to be made. Some of the clinics weren’t pleasant, most of the providers were Physician Assistants or Nurse Practitioners (which I have no problem with), and time with patients was probably more limited than it could be, but these are the realities. Could these cutbacks have caused mistakes, even fatal ones? I suppose, but even if that’s the case, the responsibility and blame falls on the system that forced doctors & patients to have to live with such risks.
I took from Mr. Bainter’s comment that the 200 deaths have occurred after taking Dr. Li’s certificate, as a result of the inability to find pain management, or just intentional/unintentional overdose from street drugs. I agree, the number is way too high to be the result of medical management. Maybe he will clarify.
Come on..Dr Li saved my ass when I first came to him after Dr loser at UW went back to teaching. The UW pain clinic ignored my complaints of increased pain, and attributed my increased pain medication usage to my youngest son being killed by a drunk driver, Dr Li immediately ordered an mri and turns out I had a 10 mm granule make at the tip of my intra the thecal catheter..he had me in surgery the next day, moving my catheter out of the granule make.
I developed a 2nd one within 2 years, but at the beginning, it was just the one clinic, in Seattle. Fast forward 8 years, 8 more clinics, no more Dr Li, 680 dollars for a ua, are you kidding me! I was due for a pump replacement, to be scheduled at my September appointment, not one call from that place, I found out through another patient of theirs.
Pure and simple..I watched greed ruin a very caring, compassionate doctor. I’m not a lay person, I was a practicing nurse 25 years, I’m so very sad that all the practitioners under him, such as my primary, Donald Baumer, who had been actually helping get off the oral pain meds after a 26 hour spinal reconstructive surgery a year ago, are being taken down with Mr Frank “Danger” li..
Who does that, changes their middle name to danger..
I could add things, anecdotes that would just get him more time, so I will keep silent on some seriously dangerous practices.
The 200 “deaths” etc. is a figure making the rounds among healthcare providers. I suspect that this is an explanation for those who simply couldn’t understand why a person with 4 semi-demi deaths possibly associated to them was someone that should be persecuted by the medical community. That’s a problem? Make it 200. That’s not enough? Let’s make it 2,000!
Until you have been on the other end of the other providers’ care that were employed by Dr. Li, don’t be too sure to support his pain clinics in general. I have been a patient of Seattle Pain Clinic for 6 years. During that time I have become an addicted person. I didn’t start out that way. As recently as last May 2016, I was on the equivalent of >216 mg of morphine daily. I was left to self~monitor and given 3 month prescriptions at a time. Each time I had my appointment I had to psych myself up to the point of frenzy because I could not risk the option of being ‘fired’ from this place. I couldn’t say the wrong thing. I couldn’t appear weak or challenging. I had to keep my voice neutral. This all because I suffer chronic back pain and the other problems that entail from generally not moving very much. I was never offered anything BUT a prescription.
I also noticed fraudulent billing each time I received my Medicare statement. I simply could not say ANYTHING. I feared being let go as a patient if I opened my mouth. God forbid I should call their call center, billing office, appointment line……for ANYTHING that would take up extra time. I became afraid of life in general. Ask my now absent family, friends.
I’ll move forward from here. I’ll come out of this fog. I’m out of this nightmare…..finally.
Actually, most of what you say here supports the concept that Dr. Li ran a legitimate, good pain practice. Giving you 3 months of your medications (allowed by DEC regs) when other pain clinics require the patient to come in every month shows he wasn’t trying to bilk the insurances. Your addiction is not because of your medications. You might want to purchase my DVD “The REAL Cause of Drug Abuse” when it is available. If you had to remain neutral in your presentation to the clinic, in fear of being “fired” actually tells me they were watching for the red flags associated with drug seeking. And without more data, your “fraudulent billing” charge, I wonder, might be based on the government propaganda about drug screening. Believe me, you don’t get paid enough for a drug screen to make it worth the time and effort of doing it. So without further evidence, my assessment of the situation remains the same.
I have chronic pancreatitis, and Dr. Li has been my dr. for 10 years. He is the most knowledgeable, caring, and compassionate pain dr. I have ever had. I have a pain pump, and have to have it refilled by a pain clinic ev. 3 months, and at the same time get a new prescription for breakthrough pain. At every appt. at the Seattle Pain Center Prior I was reqd. to complete and sign forms about my current pain level, any changes in my pain, all my prescriptions, and questions about possible addiction. And before ev. prescription renewal I had to take a urine test. It is appalling that Dr. Li’s license has been suspended and his clinics have shut down, leaving thousands of patients without care! I feel like I have been thrown under the bus. To say Dr. Li required urine tests to make more money is also appalling. How else would they know whether their patients were taking other drugs? And saying that accepting Medicare AND Medicaid patients for profit IS ludicrous. And most importantly, in regard to these “suspicious” deaths – they occurred because patients either mixed their already-prescribed medications with meds prescribed by other doctors who were either misinformed about what the patient was already taking or THEY were not educated about mixing the prescriptions. OR the patient got other medications off the street and mixed them. OR they took too much medication either by accident, or on purpose. There is no dr. who can live with their patients to make sure they are taking their medications as prescribed! This is the responsibility of the patient and/or hopefully an advocate such as a family member or friend who is helping the patient monitor their prescriptions. But the bottom line is that it is the responsibility of the patient. It is so sad that patients have died under these circumstances, but unless they are in a hospital and monitored 24/7 these accidents will occur. Under any medical condition, once we leave the facility or doctor’s office we are ultimately responsible for our own health.
Thank you, Dianna, your testimony is support of all that I said, not from knowing Dr. Li, but from knowing the criminal ways that the government uses to inflame the public and lie to criminalize us. Please stay vocal on FB and every other source and keep up your support.
I am so sorry this is happening all over the United States. As a very low percentage of people are being treated when they need to be and they die because the pain destroys other organs. Shouldn’t this be against the law.
I was a patient of Dr Li’s since he opened his clinic in Renton. I came from Idaho where I had been on stronger doses of opiates than any amount Dr Li’s office gave me. No one knows how it is to live with chronic pain. The one thing different about Dr. Li’s office was he didn’t just give out pain medication. He did injections, gave advice on pain pumps, and electric stimulas pumps, and braces. Dr. Li at one time lowered by medication due to the new state laws, and they were never increased again. I would look forward to my injections as they helped. All of his pain clinics had standards that were always enforced. You would not get your medications until you took a urine test. And sometimes you were only given one month supply of pain med’s, and you would have to come back in a month for re-evaluation. There were several different employees at the office through the years from P. A.’s to specialty physicians but they always went by the standards. I moved to Oregon and planned to continue going to Seattle Pain Clinic in Vancouver Washington. I did not find out that there was a problem with his clinic until I tried to get a primary care doctor in the small town I live in. I finally got one after 3 months and was treated like some kind of addict, even though I did not ask for pain meds, I did not know about Dr. Li’s clinics closing at this time. I was flagged as an addict and no doctor in this town would treat me as gossip went to different offices. I called my insurance clinic and found out about Dr. Li. I am trying to get a Primary doctor in a larger city further away. And still don’t have a pain doctor. I can imagine what is happening to all of his patients “just you went to one of his clinics you are an addict”. I pray to GOD that he helps all of us that went there and hope there may not be more deaths because of the closer of the clinics.
I’m one of the lucky ones who are not helped by much but total inactivity, exercise and stretching possible only with med levels currently higher than today, and so yes my condition worsens, and when I say that the alternative methods haven’t helped I’m saying two things, one is that my level of satisfaction is not as high as is that of people who are helped, and that I’m a constant suspect for being a tweeker. One last thought. I deeply regret what happened to Dr. Li and suspect that it’s mostly bogus, but notice as well that all or nearly all of the “pro” Dr. Li comments are coming from: Dr. Li’s personal patients and not those treated by the nurses, and people using alternative methods. Those who’ve been blown off by the nurses with no opportunity for appeal to the doctor felt pretty burned. I suspect that this group supplied the bitter complainers. Pain treatment is not an area of medicine that works well in “clinic” treatment. Pain patients need doctors unaffiliated with clinics etc. and unhindered by wacko gov. regulations. I have great things to say about two pain doctors I saw before Dr. Li. One was scared out of prescribing opiates and the other disliked the hassle created by gov. oversight, and running his own practice who quit his practice to work for Swedish as an emergent care physician.
I certainly don’t know everything about everyone who went to SPC. But from my experience patients first saw Dr. Li, just as any new clinic you might go to now, then after that you would be seen by a P.A., which also seems to be how other clinics work, as well. I worked with sev. different P.A.’s and when I found one I liked I made an appt. with her every time. It was very helpful to go to a P.A. whom I knew and trusted. (I have a pain pump, which has to be refilled ev. 3 months, and replaced ev. 7 yrs.) And probably like everyone, I have had a few crises along the way, and Dr. Li was accessible on an emergency basis. I wish you well.
In most clinics patients see and trust the physician extenders just like doctors. They usually learn from the doctor how treatment is supposed to be handled, and the doctor always reviews the records to make sure.
I appreciate that you wrote back. My experience with Pain doctors prior to Dr Li, and I have been messed up since 1999, is/was one on one with the doctor. The doctors always seemed more reasonable than the nurses since the nurses only have the authority to write the scrip or not write it. The Doc calls the shots. I had to quit working because of my injury and botched surgeries and so get a pension. This needs signing once a year. It has to be signed by a doctor and while this year it went fairly well in previous years I had to literally track the guy down to get his signature and it took months. Honestly, if I had been Dr. Li, I would have expected what happened. In fact I DID see it coming and thought (rather ungenerously) that the multiple clinics were to make retirement money before the government shut him down. It’s pretty obvious that the gov no longer wants people to get pain meds, tranqs that work and so forth, so it was all just a matter of time. If I have to hear the “We handed pain meds out like candy during the 90’s and that caused people to die and now if we take people off of their meds they will find that they have been healed.” speech one more time I will explode. I never noticed the huge outpouring of meds during the 90’s. Sure they wrote in the newspaper about the need for them, but the only time I ever saw doctors free with meds was during the 60’s.
He became “medical director” over all clinics, as the hired more and more new grad PA’system, and NP’.This scared me, as most pump overdoses occur with refills, Mr Baumer always did triple checks to make sure he was in the port, unlike any of the other practitioners there.
Things went down hill after Dr Li suddenly, for whatever reason, stopped doing his own pump replacements.
It was gradual, over years, but I haven’t even heard that he even sees patients anymore.
He did help me get a pension after a severe back injury at work, and it’ll be 400 less a month for a year to cover the “cost of his testimony” which was written..hmmm
I was lucky that I landed with Donald Baumer, he was compassionate, the only one in 8 years to ever do “pill counts” Dr li..for years they had a sign on the wall if you didn’t bring your meds for pill count, you’d have to reschedule..think I’ve been asked 3x..in 7-8 years
I NEVER was asked for pill counts and lucky too. If I hadn’t had extra I couldn’t have managed with the med reductions. Over a decade I had a large overage. Look, it works like this; the nurses are mistake prone. They assume that r no. I won’t reveal the mistakes that help us/me. Suffice to say that mistakes are rife. I ended up over 10 years with a lot of extra meds, but as most of those in my place, I never “overed”. There is no point. After using them for pain there simply IS NO HIGH! So, you end up with extra drugs, but with no motive to use them. I saved mine and so when the “doctor” reduced my meds I had a source to draw from. I finally had to reduce my meds and I have experienced constant withdrawal symptoms but NO reduction in pain. Quite the opposite. The pain has grown hugely. My two options are to: 1.) use some other drug, alcohol or Marijuana, 2.. lie in bed with the reduced med and read or listen to music. There is no thought of living any sort of normal life on the reduced meds. Suicide looks like more and more a better option.
I hope you don’t resort to that. Please consider prolotherapy or homeopathy. Also, ascorbate helps withdrawal. It is a non-acidic form of vitamin C which helps the body clear medicines but doesn’t cause the side effects of regular vitamin C. I think it is available on my website http://www.sevenpillarstotalhealth.com.
Its 2021 is anyone still out there? I need some advise.
Please you all sound just like me.
Please reply if anyone is reading this. Please
Sorry, I’m just checking the comments. It is just now being made public.
i never had a problem with any of the staff ever at any of the clinics. and i still dont have a pain doc. and i no longer have a business