Manuel C. Barit, MD, is a 70 y/o solo practice family physician in the small town of Mullens, WV. In January, 2018, as part of Jeff Sessions’ attacks on independent physicians of 12 states through his Opioid Detection Unit, which invades the states’ prescription monitoring programs to pick out the low-hanging fruit, the DEA rolled in on Dr. Mullens, violating his 4^th amendment rights of unreasonable search and seizure. Now, 3 months later, he has been charged with 19 counts of distribution of controlled substances, including hydrocodone, outside the bounds of a legitimate medical practice.  This is in violation of the Controlled Substance Act which states that only the doctor can determine legitimate medical practice. This indictment is giving that decision to the US Attorney who is then acting like he is a physician and should then be charged with practicing medicine without a license.

As usual, the government is also charging Dr. Barit with Medicare/Medicaid fraud  from about October 7, 2013 through January 2018 by submitting claims for treatments at his Mullens clinic on dates he was outside the United States.

The indictment can be seen here:  http://s3.amazonaws.com/wvmetro-media/uploads/2018/05/21192955/Barit-Indictment-FINAL.pdf

The purpose of these outrageous charges is to hopefully force the doctor into a plea agreement where the government wins all around. They confiscate all the money earned by the doctor in Medicare/Medicaid for 5 years, forfeit all of his assets he has earned over his lifetime, save the time and money going to trial, put another innocent doctor in prison, and can quickly move on to the next target to do the same thing.  It’s a racket.

Now the travesty of this is that the government is using the law against innocent physicians that have no intent of breaking the law. In order to do their job in the restraints of being a solo practice rural physician, they have to do the best they can with the dispensing of controlled drugs. When a doctor is going to be out of town and there is no one to take his place, the usual practice is to review the record, make the decision of the continuing of the medication, and preprint the prescriptions and then put them in the chart. The work is in the decision-making, and as long as that is being done by the doctor, the doctor should be reimbursed. Dr. Barit charged only a 99212, which is the lowest possible charge involving a doctor. A 99211 would be only a nurse evaluation, and in my opinion, that would be more “dangerous” to the practice, saying a nurse saw and evaluated the patient for a controlled substance. So Dr. Barit, in my opinion, chose the best option.  It would not be fair for the government patient to receive their visit for free, while self-pay patients would be eligible for charge. So the problem here isn’t that Dr. Barit “knowingly and intentionally” committed a crime, but that Medicare/Medicaid has used this against doctors without just cause.  If charging a 99212 for an evaluation when the doctor is out of the office would not be according to the statute, then they need to amend the statute to make allowances for the solo practice physician being out-of-town in order to service their patients. A doctor can’t suspend treatment of patients because they are out of town. And dispensing the medications earlier than scheduled would also be frowned on. So he is caught between a rock and a hard place. In my opinion, his choice demonstrates his dedication to his patients and his attempt to prevent drug diversion, not cause it.

Then the media is part of the problem as well, quoting US Attorneys and AG Sessions making inflammatory statements about doctors like they are already criminals and they haven’t even been convicted (and wouldn’t if the propaganda hadn’t tainted the jury pool).  Shame on them!!

Get this DVD for your legislators.

If you are tired of government overreach into your doctor’s office, the murder of innocent legitimate patients being forced to the street for self-medication, the ruining of innocent compassionate physicians’ lives, then join us on DoC to give us the support we need to fight this.

Dr. Barit pleaded guilty to several charges of violations of the False Claims Act in January, 2019.  He agreed to permanently surrender his license to practice medicine in West Virginia and his DEA certificate as well as paying restitution (which is what the government is after). Although scheduled for sentencing in May, 2019, there is no record of that happening as of yet.

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.