Investigation of San Diego Chargers/Padres Doctors Continue Over Controlled Substance Prescriptions

This is kind of interesting as to what has been revealed here with Dr. Chao writing a number of controlled substance prescriptions to himself, and I assume it is him since the name is the same unless by a wild chance the doctor has a patient who is a doctor by the same name, but not likely.

Certainly athletes get hurt and need pain medication but it appears there’s a bit more behind the scenes going on here as one doctor back in 1998 was dropped from the teams due to his own addiction to pain killers. With what I am reading here, the DEA would have a lot easier job tracing controlled substances given via e-prescribing too, would certainly save a lot of time with finding the records. At any rate, professional athletes get paid a lot of money and not only baseball and football are in the spotlight. BD

The DEA searched the offices of Chargers and Padres team doctors on June 29 after serving 10 administrative inspection warrants. The DEA asked a magistrate judge for the warrants after finding irregularities in how some team doctors issued prescriptions. Padres team doctor Harry Albers also apparently wrote six prescriptions to himself, according to the affidavit. Molina wrote six prescriptions for fellow Padres doctor Robert Kakehashi, which made the prescriptions "suspicious," the affidavit said.

The case's origins can be traced to the arrest in May of former Chargers safety Kevin Ellison, who had been charged with illegally possessed 100 Vicodin painkiller pills when he was stopped for speeding in Redondo Beach. The Chargers have said the Vicodin was not provided by the team or its doctors.

“Based on this arrest and other recent media coverage of another NFL team dealing with suspected controlled substance violations (the New Orleans Saints), the (DEA) conducted a review” of prescription drug records through the DEA’s automated records system and the state controlled substance monitoring program, the affidavit said.

The idea was “to identify controlled substances purchases and prescription activity by physicians associated with San Diego’s professional sports teams.”

The review found that from June 10, 2008 to June 10, 2010, one of Chao’s registration numbers had 65 controlled substance prescriptions issued in the patient name “David J. Chao M.D.” Another registration number issued to Chao had 43 in the same patient name.

In 2002, Chao was issued a $1,000 citation by the state medical board for failure to maintain adequate and accurate medical records. The charge stemmed from allegations Chao had unlawfully written narcotics prescriptions for former Chargers doctor Gary Losse, whose alleged addiction to such narcotics led to his being dropped by the Chargers in 1998, according to court records.