An anesthesiologist accused of overprescribing "cocktails of controlled substances" in Alaska and running a suspected pill mill in Sherwood lost his license to practice in an almost unanimous vote cast Friday by Arkansas State Medical Board members.
Dr. Mahmood Ahmad was called out by medical board attorney Kevin O'Dwyer for his "routine reliance" on high starting doses of opioid prescriptions, improper keeping of patient records, "gross negligence" and "professional incompetence." O'Dwyer also recited some of the charges from an Aug. 4 ruling by an Alaska administrative law judge.
The Arkansas physicians' oversight board had issued an emergency suspension of Ahmad's license in May after Alaska regulators found that the doctor prescribed life-threatening amounts of controlled substances to patients in Anchorage.
His clinics in Sherwood, United Pain Care Clinic and United Pharmacy, had already been under investigation by the board and federal authorities.
Ahmad is one of 32 medical professionals the board has imposed sanctions against since January.
On Thursday, the board lifted the earlier license suspensions of Dr. Felicie Wyatt of Jackson, Miss., and physician assistant Aaron Borengasser, w̶h̶o̶ ̶h̶a̶d̶ ̶b̶e̶e̶n̶ ̶d̶i̶s̶c̶i̶p̶l̶i̶n̶e̶d̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶i̶r̶ ̶p̶a̶r̶t̶i̶c̶i̶p̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶a̶ ̶s̶o̶-̶c̶a̶l̶l̶e̶d̶ ̶p̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶m̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶o̶p̶e̶r̶a̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶n̶o̶w̶-̶c̶l̶o̶s̶e̶d̶ ̶A̶r̶t̶e̶x̶ ̶M̶e̶d̶i̶c̶a̶l̶ ̶C̶l̶i̶n̶i̶c̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶w̶e̶s̶t̶ ̶L̶i̶t̶t̶l̶e̶ ̶R̶o̶c̶k.*
Wyatt and Borengasser were acquitted in August by a federal jury of conspiring to distribute the pain medication hydrocodone.
Ahmad's hearing came just after board members discussed the "opioid epidemic" that has raised concerns in Arkansas and the nation in recent years.
Arkansas is among the top four states in the country for the rate of prescribed opioids, with more prescriptions than people, according to 2015 figures from IMS Health, the largest vendor of U.S. physician prescribing data.
And drug-related deaths, largely from opioid overdoses, in the state have jumped 25 percent since 2006, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Arkansas is still working on its own database of controlled substances with the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, established by legislators in 2011.
During Friday's meeting, program administrator Denise Robertson detailed how the database can be used to give the board more information about the prescribing habits of doctors -- especially those who write a large number of opioid prescriptions.
No decisions about how the reports would be generated or released were made.
After the meeting, Robertson said that she hopes the program can be used to assist the board in future investigations.
But it is still a work in progress, she said. The program was created to help prevent and reduce the illicit use of opioids.
"When you can elicit positive change from something it is good," Robertson said. "Just making people aware about the overprescribing that is going on, it opens up the conversations for them to all talk."
During the hearing on Ahmad's license, his attorney, Drake Mann, said it was "a fact" that Alaska never officially found the doctor to be in violation of specific statutes.
The document O'Dwyer cited "served a very narrow purpose, unrelated to health care," Mann said.
"It seems to me the board's primary concern here should be not whether Dr. Ahmad did these things that were alleged in Alaska, but whether, for Arkansans, he is providing a valuable, safe service, which he is," Mann argued.
"There's no evidence, no suggestion, there is anything improper about the service he is providing to Arkansans."
The board disagreed.
"Is the human body in Alaska different from the Arkansas human body? Is there any evidence that your practice in Arkansas is any different than it was in Alaska?" Chairman Joseph Beck asked.
In February, the board agreed to drop overprescribing and improper record-keeping allegations against Ahmad as long as he reimbursed the $20,000 it cost to investigate his practice, as well as submit to a patient records audit.
But a federal lawsuit filed the following month sought $1.2 million from the doctor for 121 violations of the Controlled Substances Act between 2012 and 2013, according to court records. He is scheduled for trial next April in Little Rock.
As the status of Ahmad's medical license drew additional scrutiny in Arkansas, Alaska officials found he was a "clear and immediate danger to the public," according to the August ruling.
Rather than accept the revocation of his Alaska license, Ahmad surrendered his credentials, prompting the Arkansas medical board to consider further sanctions against his Arkansas license.
Metro on 10/08/2016
*CORRECTION: The Arkansas State Medical Board dismissed a “show cause” disciplinary case against physician assistant Aaron Borengasser on Thursday. His license to practice was not suspended prior to that hearing. An article in Saturday’s editions incorrectly described the board’s actions.