A Military Doc Is Sentenced For Taking Goodies

A Military Doc Is Sentenced For Taking Goodies

October 14th, 2011 // 3:07 pm @ jmpickett

Earlier this year, we wrote that US Army Major Jason Layne Davis, who was the chief cardiologist at Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Washington, was paid $4,812 by Boston Scientific’s Guidant unit in 2007 to ‘train’ two of the device maker’s sales reps. They watched as he implanted devices in patients, and between 2006 and 2009, Guidant also gave Davis meals and gratuities. Meanwhile, he used almost exclusively only Guidant pacemakers and defibrillators.

But Davis never sought approval to use the surgeries for training purposes and never received permission to accept such a position or accept payments. Consequently, he was charged with a misdemeanor for accepting funds from an illegal source and he pleaded guilty to what amounted to accepting kickbacks (back story here).

And so late last week, Davis was ordered to pay a $7,986 fine and another $4,812 in restitution. In announcing the sentence, Magistrate Judge J. Richard Creatura declared that the restitution reflects the sum of “every dinner, every bottle of wine and every other gratuity that you have ever received from Guidant,” according to The Seattle Times. The wine, by the was, pricey. Boston Scientific reps told prosecutors they once paid for $300 bottles, but cut back to $100 bottles.

But was patient care at stake? The paper notes that, at the time the plea deal was reached in January, prosecutors believed this was not an issue. But later, the US Defense Department followed up on a recommendation from a whistleblower, a retired colonel, to review implants conducted by Davis. The review suggested guidelines were not met or were contradicted in four of 30 cases examined involving Davis and another Madigan Army doctor, but “failed to pinpoint any lapses in the quality of care,” according to the sentencing memorandum (read it here).

In any event, Davis reportedly said this to the judge: “I engage people. I care about them. I try to mentor, and in the course of doing that, I will certainly admit that I have made some mistakes,” the paper wrote. “There is more to this than some rogue physician who is corrupt – because I am not corrupt, sir.”

This is one of the first cases in the country where both the company and the doctor who accepted illegal goodies were sanctioned, according to the feds (see this). In a sentencing memo, prosecutors wrote “there is no question but that Dr. Davis committed a criminal offense, and that he should have known better, but there is also no doubt that those who plied him with food, alcohol, money and other courtesies knew exactly what they were doing, and why they were doing it.”

As we noted previously, though, this episode underscores that there is a different standard for military docs than for other docs, all of whom supposedly took the same Hippocratic oath. There is no such rule, for instance, that forbids civilian docs from accepting ‘training’ fees or meals and so on. Instead, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act includes a provision requiring companies to report payments starting in 2013. But there is no ban on such practices.

Source: Pharmalot