DEA Defense Lawyers and Attorneys
DEA registration protection is an extremely complex area of law fraught with pitfalls for the inexperienced lawyer. Poor information can cost you a own practice, freedom, fiscal resources, along with your registration. It is crucial to choose counsel highly experienced in DEA registration defense. If you are a healthcare provider and you also dispense or prescribe controlled substances you need to obey the stringent Federal and State requirements that regulate the prescribing and dispensing of such compounds. Failure to obey these rules may cause an investigation or audit which will not just carry monetary penalties but threaten the health care providers' DEA registration and state permit.
According to the DEA, it frequently audits pharmacies and physician practices for compliance with all the controlled substances act. While this is accurate, it is a bit of an understatement such action is the consequence of random inspections. Generally, investigations and audits are targeted and it is incumbent upon a doctor or pharmacist to take care of an encounter with the DEA as more than just mere opportunity but a well-planned out encounter done for investigative purposes.
If you're being audited by the DEA you ought to assume that the DEA already has a feeling that you have violated at least one factor of these controlled substances act. If you are facing action by the DEA it's likely because you had been the target of a DEA investigation. If DEA diversion investigators are in your clinic or pharmacy performing an audit, they at least have some knowledge about you and your clinic. Generally, the DEA gathers information about a physician or pharmacist before conducting an audit by reviewing prescription drug monitoring system software. The DEA looks for signs in the information that may suggest the need for a DEA Audit. When those signs are present, they will attempt to perform an administrative examination.
You might also be a target because your patients exhibit"red flags."
dea investigations or Diversion Investigator"Revoke" My Registration?
The response to this question is no. The DEA may inform you they have the power to revoke your registration or if you do not sign a DEA 104 (voluntary surrender) they have the ability to reverse, and this is false. DEA agents and diversion investigators don't have the capability to revoke a registration. Just the DEA administrator has the power to revoke your registration and the secretary can only do so when he complies with all the demands of due process.
To initiate the process, the DEA will document an"order to show cause" against your registration. Before this occurs, your lawyer should have engaged in extensive correspondence/negotiation with the DEA to attempt to demonstrate compliance or resolve the allegations (see below). Should you request a hearing you will have the chance to"show cause" facing a DEA administrative law judge that your registration shouldn't be revoked. You should retain counsel to file the answer and defend you in the hearing. This hearing can happen in Arlington Virginia or close to your pharmacy/practice depending on the judge's judgment.
What Can I Do If I Am Under Analysis, Audited, or Stress An investigation or Audit?
If you are facing a DEA investigation or believe the DEA has initiated criminal, civil, or administrative action against you, there are a Couple of Straightforward Actions you can take now to greatly enhance your Odds of a successful outcome:
Get A Knowledgeable DEA Attorney. You must obtain an attorney educated with all the nuance of DEA lawenforcement. DEA regulations are complex and violation of one regulation (depending on the seriousness ) can cost tens of tens of thousands of civil penalties, lead to license revocation, and result in a criminal investigation. Terrible advice can cost you your own practice. Make sure you choose an experienced business that's practiced in this stadium frequently. Our lawyers have represented hundreds of physicians, pharmacies, and other prescribers throughout the nation in DEA proceedings and during DEA investigations.
Only Deal With The DEA Through Counsel. Many pharmacists, physicians or other prescribers believe that getting an attorney to manage the DEA will make them seem guilty. This isn't the case, every big and midsize drugstore, distributor or physician practice group speaks to the DEA simply through their DEA attorney or compliance personnel. This is common among businesses that appreciate the fact that just a knowledgeable DEA attorney is equipped to understand the legal and regulatory framework satisfactorily to correspond with the DEA. Additionally, whenever a pharmacist or physician talks together using the DEA, that information is registered in a document and may be used later in court proceedings. It is very important that each statement made into the DEA is filed through counsel to avoid costly mistakes. The DEA also appreciates correspondence via counsel because, if you keep a DEA attorney that's knowledgeable about DEA matters, rapport is readily established between recreation investigators, representatives, DEA attorneys that could streamline the procedure for responding to requests. There are almost never circumstances where this can be good for the physician or pharmacy and re-obtaining your registration may take a long time and tens of thousands of dollars.
Assess Your Practice. Since the pharmaceutical industry is a heavily regulated field, it is almost always best to self-assess and ascertain how we could convince the DEA that 1) we didn't violate regulations, and 2) we will not violate regulations later on. This is the main concern of the DEA. Whether it's a pharmacy or doctor's practice we typically run a DEA compliance review originally to determine the level of any possible issues. If your documentation is insufficient, we assist you to fix it. If audits of dispensing records show incorrect data, we will be able to help you find the root cause of this outcome. As a full-service healthcare law firm, we will focus on repairing any systemic issues while concurrently aggressively protecting any false allegations from the practice or pharmacy.
Preventing Unwanted DEA Scrutiny. Let's be honest, we are living in a world in which investigations are driven by data. DEA investigators review data before inspecting your clinic or pharmacy. The DEA makes conclusions about what a to goal dependent on the amount of regulated substances dispensed. Pharmacy wholesalers make conclusions about which customers to cut-off based on data and pharmacies make decisions about which physicians' prescriptions they will not fill according to data. Therefore, its imperative that you
Grow a DEA Corrective Action Plan. When you have assessed your pharmacy or practice you will have to implement procedures and policies to make certain you and your staff keep compliance and continue to enhance. If the DEA does take administrative, the corrective action program can be submitted as evidence to show that you need to retain your DEA registration. If you are facing a criminal investigation or have been the topic of a DEA administrative inspection or search warrant, you might be worried that submitting a corrective action plan is an admission of wrongdoing. This isn't the case, your lawyer can submit it in such a manner that it cannot be used as evidence against you at a later proceeding. Therefore with an attorney knowledgeable in DEA matters is vitally important.
After you have taken every step to guarantee compliance, it's vital to aggressively defend any allegations against you or your pharmacy/practice of criminal conduct. Whether the allegations are criminal, civil, or administrative in character, you need to develop an investigation program that creates strong evidence to present at trial or even the DEA hearing. If the case involves prescribing of controlled materials, your counsel will need to interview patients, obtain medical records, obtain specialists, and produce data to prove that you prescribed"for a valid medical purpose" and"in the regular course of professional practice". If the situation involves dispensing, you'll have to review dispensing data you have resolved and recorded any possible"DEA red flags" associated with the prescriptions filled. This process isn't easy and demands review of tens of thousands of pages of information (based on the size of the pharmacy or practice). If your behavior is supported in the information and by a specialist, you should not be concerned about aggressively defending your activities in order to get a dismissal or positive conclusion through a DEA hearing or trial.
According to the DEA, it frequently audits pharmacies and physician practices for compliance with all the controlled substances act. While this is accurate, it is a bit of an understatement such action is the consequence of random inspections. Generally, investigations and audits are targeted and it is incumbent upon a doctor or pharmacist to take care of an encounter with the DEA as more than just mere opportunity but a well-planned out encounter done for investigative purposes.
If you're being audited by the DEA you ought to assume that the DEA already has a feeling that you have violated at least one factor of these controlled substances act. If you are facing action by the DEA it's likely because you had been the target of a DEA investigation. If DEA diversion investigators are in your clinic or pharmacy performing an audit, they at least have some knowledge about you and your clinic. Generally, the DEA gathers information about a physician or pharmacist before conducting an audit by reviewing prescription drug monitoring system software. The DEA looks for signs in the information that may suggest the need for a DEA Audit. When those signs are present, they will attempt to perform an administrative examination.
You might also be a target because your patients exhibit"red flags."
dea investigations or Diversion Investigator"Revoke" My Registration?
The response to this question is no. The DEA may inform you they have the power to revoke your registration or if you do not sign a DEA 104 (voluntary surrender) they have the ability to reverse, and this is false. DEA agents and diversion investigators don't have the capability to revoke a registration. Just the DEA administrator has the power to revoke your registration and the secretary can only do so when he complies with all the demands of due process.
To initiate the process, the DEA will document an"order to show cause" against your registration. Before this occurs, your lawyer should have engaged in extensive correspondence/negotiation with the DEA to attempt to demonstrate compliance or resolve the allegations (see below). Should you request a hearing you will have the chance to"show cause" facing a DEA administrative law judge that your registration shouldn't be revoked. You should retain counsel to file the answer and defend you in the hearing. This hearing can happen in Arlington Virginia or close to your pharmacy/practice depending on the judge's judgment.
What Can I Do If I Am Under Analysis, Audited, or Stress An investigation or Audit?
If you are facing a DEA investigation or believe the DEA has initiated criminal, civil, or administrative action against you, there are a Couple of Straightforward Actions you can take now to greatly enhance your Odds of a successful outcome:
Get A Knowledgeable DEA Attorney. You must obtain an attorney educated with all the nuance of DEA lawenforcement. DEA regulations are complex and violation of one regulation (depending on the seriousness ) can cost tens of tens of thousands of civil penalties, lead to license revocation, and result in a criminal investigation. Terrible advice can cost you your own practice. Make sure you choose an experienced business that's practiced in this stadium frequently. Our lawyers have represented hundreds of physicians, pharmacies, and other prescribers throughout the nation in DEA proceedings and during DEA investigations.
Only Deal With The DEA Through Counsel. Many pharmacists, physicians or other prescribers believe that getting an attorney to manage the DEA will make them seem guilty. This isn't the case, every big and midsize drugstore, distributor or physician practice group speaks to the DEA simply through their DEA attorney or compliance personnel. This is common among businesses that appreciate the fact that just a knowledgeable DEA attorney is equipped to understand the legal and regulatory framework satisfactorily to correspond with the DEA. Additionally, whenever a pharmacist or physician talks together using the DEA, that information is registered in a document and may be used later in court proceedings. It is very important that each statement made into the DEA is filed through counsel to avoid costly mistakes. The DEA also appreciates correspondence via counsel because, if you keep a DEA attorney that's knowledgeable about DEA matters, rapport is readily established between recreation investigators, representatives, DEA attorneys that could streamline the procedure for responding to requests. There are almost never circumstances where this can be good for the physician or pharmacy and re-obtaining your registration may take a long time and tens of thousands of dollars.
Assess Your Practice. Since the pharmaceutical industry is a heavily regulated field, it is almost always best to self-assess and ascertain how we could convince the DEA that 1) we didn't violate regulations, and 2) we will not violate regulations later on. This is the main concern of the DEA. Whether it's a pharmacy or doctor's practice we typically run a DEA compliance review originally to determine the level of any possible issues. If your documentation is insufficient, we assist you to fix it. If audits of dispensing records show incorrect data, we will be able to help you find the root cause of this outcome. As a full-service healthcare law firm, we will focus on repairing any systemic issues while concurrently aggressively protecting any false allegations from the practice or pharmacy.
Preventing Unwanted DEA Scrutiny. Let's be honest, we are living in a world in which investigations are driven by data. DEA investigators review data before inspecting your clinic or pharmacy. The DEA makes conclusions about what a to goal dependent on the amount of regulated substances dispensed. Pharmacy wholesalers make conclusions about which customers to cut-off based on data and pharmacies make decisions about which physicians' prescriptions they will not fill according to data. Therefore, its imperative that you
Grow a DEA Corrective Action Plan. When you have assessed your pharmacy or practice you will have to implement procedures and policies to make certain you and your staff keep compliance and continue to enhance. If the DEA does take administrative, the corrective action program can be submitted as evidence to show that you need to retain your DEA registration. If you are facing a criminal investigation or have been the topic of a DEA administrative inspection or search warrant, you might be worried that submitting a corrective action plan is an admission of wrongdoing. This isn't the case, your lawyer can submit it in such a manner that it cannot be used as evidence against you at a later proceeding. Therefore with an attorney knowledgeable in DEA matters is vitally important.
After you have taken every step to guarantee compliance, it's vital to aggressively defend any allegations against you or your pharmacy/practice of criminal conduct. Whether the allegations are criminal, civil, or administrative in character, you need to develop an investigation program that creates strong evidence to present at trial or even the DEA hearing. If the case involves prescribing of controlled materials, your counsel will need to interview patients, obtain medical records, obtain specialists, and produce data to prove that you prescribed"for a valid medical purpose" and"in the regular course of professional practice". If the situation involves dispensing, you'll have to review dispensing data you have resolved and recorded any possible"DEA red flags" associated with the prescriptions filled. This process isn't easy and demands review of tens of thousands of pages of information (based on the size of the pharmacy or practice). If your behavior is supported in the information and by a specialist, you should not be concerned about aggressively defending your activities in order to get a dismissal or positive conclusion through a DEA hearing or trial.
