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April 7, 2008

Doctor pays feds $50k for faulty drug accounting

A Warwick-based physician has paid $50,000 to settle claims in connection with ordering some 1,200 hydrocodone pills every two to three weeks that he said were for personal use, according to federal authorities.

Ralph A. DiGiacomo paid the money to the federal government for failing to "adequately account" for hydrocodone, known by brand name Vicodin, U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente and June W. Stansbury, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said in a news release today. The settlement was finalized on March 31.

The settlement, with the Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration, came after the state Board of Pharmacy on March 30 last year inspected Dr. DiGiacomo’s medical practice on Toll Gate Road, Warwick. The inspection found he had failed to maintain records of his hydrocodone inventory and he had taken hydrocodone from the practice to his home in West Kingston, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

The next week, federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents said they seized 2,400 tablets of hydrocodone from Dr. DiGiacomo’s residence, also seizing Librium and Soma. Dr. DiGiacomo said at the time all the Vicodin he ordered from 2000 to 2007 was for personal use and that he took 30 to 40 pills every day, according to the U.S. Attorney's news release.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 12:44 PM | Permalink

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