GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY, Mich. (WPBN/WGTU) -- Sixth Street Drugs in Traverse City agreed to a $1.5 million settlement after allegations pharmacists filled illegitimate prescriptions for controlled substances.
Sixth Street Drugs, Inc., a Munson Healthcare subsidiary, agreed to a three-year Memorandum of Agreement with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to resolve allegations that it violated the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) by filling numerous prescriptions for controlled substances despite red flags that the prescriptions were not valid, according to the DEA.
Under the CSA and DEA regulations, for a prescription to be effective, it must be issued for a legitimate medical purpose by an individual practitioner acting in the usual course of his professional practice.
According to the DEA, an investigation began at Sixth Street Drugs based on information that a number of prescriptions were being filled for schedule II controlled substances including: Oxycodone, hydrocodone, morphine and amphetamine.
Following an administrative inspection in 2019, the DEA alleged that Sixth Street Drugs failed to identify and resolve numerous red flags before filling prescriptions.
Among other things, DEA alleges that Sixth Street Drugs:
- Filled hundreds of prescriptions that resulted in patients receiving dangerous drug cocktails (such as opioids with benzodiazepines, muscle relaxants, and/or stimulants)
- Filled prescriptions that resulted in patients receiving extraordinarily high opioid doses that far exceeded federal dosage guidance
- Filled prescriptions for hundreds of individuals who were traveling long distances to receive prescriptions and to fill them at Sixth Street Drugs
- Filled prescriptions for many patients who had prescriptions from numerous prescribers and used multiple pharmacies
- Filled prescriptions for patients of several providers who issued suspicious prescriptions and have since been sanctioned by state and federal authorities
- Provided early refills of opioid prescriptions on hundreds of occasions
- Lacked appropriate written policies and procedures relating to dispensing controlled substances.
As part of the settlement, Sixth Street Drugs entered into a three-year Memorandum of Agreement with DEA that, among other things, prescribes Sixth Street Drugs’ drug-handling responsibilities, mandates external controlled substance audits, and requires Sixth Street Drugs to institute a broadbased educational program focused on preventing drug diversion.
In reaching this settlement, the government recognized the substantial steps Munson Healthcare took in response to DEA’s investigation to address problems relating to Sixth Street Drugs’ handling of controlled substances.
Below is a statement sent to the UpNorthLive Newsroom from Munson Healthcare:
We fully own and acknowledge that we did not meet our own high standards and have continued to learn and evolve our practices as a result. We took immediate action in 2020 to suspend dispensing of all opioid medications at Sixth Street Drugs, which is still in place today, and change leadership at that location. We also engaged two independent third parties to conduct audits of all pharmacies across the entire healthcare system and have implemented new pharmacy processes and protocols based on those audits, and fully retrained all pharmacy staff.
As part of the DEA’s investigation, MHC’s overall hospital pharmacy operations were reviewed and found to be compliant, making this an isolated situation. However, we continue to monitor all pharmacy operations to ensure full compliance and to ensure that this situation never happens again.
We are fully committed to doing everything we can to keep staff fully informed and trained and have put additional monitoring steps in place to mitigate failure to catch and respond to red flags and suspicious practices.
The DOJ has publicly acknowledged our efforts by stating: ‘In reaching this settlement, the government recognized the substantial steps Munson Healthcare took in response to DEA’s investigation to address problems relating to Sixth Street Drugs’ handling of controlled substances.’
Munson Healthcare is, and always has been, committed to filling only legitimate prescriptions and is dedicated to educating our pharmacists and giving them tools to help exercise their professional judgment as they decide whether to fill controlled-substance prescriptions.
For many years, MHC has been at the forefront of combating the opioid crisis in northern Michigan and is committed to increasing our active leadership and participation in a variety of programs to continue to address controlled substance abuse in our community.
Christine Nefcy, MD, FAAP
Chief Medical Officer, Munson Healthcare System