A Beckley-based nephrologist admitted in federal court on Thursday that he would still prescribe hydrocodone to his patients after they had tested positive for illegal drugs and medications they were not prescribed.
Dr. Jose Jorge Abbud Gordinho, 67, pleaded guilty in federal court in Beckley to health care fraud and distributing hydrocodone for illegitimate purposes. He agreed to forever surrender his Drug Enforcement Administration Certificate, which is required to prescribe medication.
The deal Gordinho reached with federal prosecutors drops 20 other counts of illegitimate distribution he was facing and makes him eligible for a maximum 10-year prison sentence. The deal is binding, meaning if U.S. District Court Judge Irene Berger doesn't accept it, he can withdraw his guilty plea. Without the deal, the doctor faces a maximum 30-year prison sentence.
Berger will sentence Gordinho on April 27.
The deal doesn't limit the amount of the fine Berger can sentence Gordinho to pay or the amount of restitution he is ordered to pay.
Gordinho owned and operated Responsible Pain & Aesthetic Management on George Street in Beckley.
The doctor "was aware of the high risk of abuse" of the medications he prescribed, his plea deal states.
Gordinho required patients to sign a "pain management contract" in which patients agreed to drug screenings. If illegal drugs or medications that weren't prescribed were found in a patient's system, they were to be automatically discharged, according to the contract. Pain treatment patients were therefore required to submit urine samples each time before seeing Gordinho.
On Oct. 2, a long-time patient was seen and prescribed hydrocodone by Gordinho - despite the fact that on that date the patient had failed at least 16 prior drug screens, Gordinho's plea agreement states.
Other patients, mentioned in the charges against Gordinho, had been prescribed medication despite failing 10 or more drug screens, according to the agreement the doctor signed.
Gordinho, the deal states, "admits that each of these patients should have been discharged from his practice, and because they were not, the relevant prescriptions written for Schedule II controlled substances between January and October, 2015, were not for legitimate medical purposes in the usual course of professional medical practice and were beyond the bounds of medical practice."
Gordinho also defrauded Medicare and Medicaid by obtaining reimbursement for services that were not medically necessary, he admitted Thursday. The plea deal was signed by Gordinho, Mike Hissam, who is one of the attorneys representing Gordinho, and assistant U.S. attorney Miller Bushong.
Among state nephrologists - doctors who specialize in kidney care - Gordinho wrote the sixth-most hydrocodone-acetaminophen Medicare Part D prescriptions, including refills, in 2013. That year, Gordinho handed out 1,577 hydrocodone prescriptions, according to ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative journalism organization that tracks doctors and drugs in the United States.
Gordinho wrote almost 2,000 oxycodone prescriptions to Medicare patients in 2013. According to the West Virginia Board of Medicine, Gordinho is a 1977 graduate of the Autonomous University of Guadalajara and did his post-graduate training at Mountainside Hospital in Montclair, New Jersey, in 1987. Gordinho obtained his West Virginia license in 1989, and is also licensed to practice in Virginia and New Jersey.
In 2003, the West Virginia medical board reprimanded him for "certain answers given by Dr. Gordinho on his license renewal form for the period of July 1, 2000, to June 30, 2002." The board has taken no other actions against him. In June 1999, the Virginia Board of Medicine issued a notice to Gordinho saying the board was looking into allegations that he may have violated several laws in the treatment of seven patients at a hospital in Low Moor, Virginia. Following a six-month review, the board exonerated Gordinho and dismissed the matter with no action taken against him. The issue was the only one on file in the Virginia Board of Medicine's records on Gordinho.
Gordinho was taken back to the Southern Regional Jail after his plea hearing Thursday. He has been held there since November, when the charges were filed against him.
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.