Pain Clinics Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Records: Drug Firms Shipped Thousands of Pills to Rural W.Va.

Information about pill shipments that prescription drug distributors being sued by the state had sought to keep secret show that the firms flooded rural West Virginia with hundreds of thousands of painkillers.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports a Boone County judge on Monday ordered the release of previously sealed court documents about prescription pain pill shipments to the state.

The drug distributors had been fighting to keep the pill shipment numbers under wraps in a lawsuit filed by the attorney general’s office and other agencies, alleging the firms helped fuel the prescription drug problem in West Virginia.

Court records show the drug distributors shipped large quantities of oxycodone and hydrocodone tablets to small towns like War, Kermit, Oceana, Van and Crab Orchard, supplying mom-and-pop pharmacies that filled prescriptions from doctors.

Northern Panhandle Pain Doctor Strikes Back

A Northern Panhandle pain doctor is suing two state government agencies after he was stripped of his medical license and his clinic was closed.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that Dr. Roland Chalifoux is suing the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health and a medical board. The suit states their actions forced him into debt and damaged his reputation.

The civil action filed in Marshall County Circuit Court seeks lost wages and damages.

In his lawsuit, Chalifoux said the Bureau for Public Health falsely accused him of reusing syringes after one of his patients contracted bacterial meningitis.

His medical license was suspended in July 2014, but a circuit judge reinstated it.

A spokesman for the Bureau for Public Health said the agency does not comment specifically on pending court cases.

W.Va. Licensing Agency Orders Two Pain Clinics to Close

Two pain management clinics have been ordered to close after they failed state inspections.

The West Virginia Office of Health Facility Licensure and Certification set a May 15 deadline for Hope Clinic in Raleigh County to close. Punnamma Memorial Rehab Clinic in Wood County must close by May 21.

The agency’s director, Jolynn Marra, tells The Charleston Gazette that both clinics didn’t meet requirements to be licensed.

Three other clinics have been closed since January for failing to comply with a 2012 law aimed at reducing substance abuse. The law codified patient health and safety and gave the Department of Health and Human Resources oversight over pain clinic licensure.

W.Va. Closes Three Pain Management Clinics for Noncompliance

State officials have closed three chronic pain management clinics this year for failing to comply with a law aimed at reducing substance abuse.

The 2012 law gave the Department of Health and Human Resources oversight over pain clinic licensure and codified patient and health safety.

The Register-Herald reports that, since January, the department’s Office of Health Facilities Licensure and Certification has revoked the licenses of the Hope Clinic’s Charleston branch, Beckley Pain Clinic and the pain management operation of Med-Surg Group in Beckley.

Health and Human Resources spokeswoman Allison Adler tells the newspaper that the licensing office will continue a review of applicants until all facilities either achieve compliance or transition patients to other facilities.