Pharmacy, pharmacist lose licenses because of contact with claimants

A divided Arkansas Court of Appeals upheld the suspension of the licenses of a pharmacy and pharmacist based on their communications with three workers compensation claimants and their physicians.

In 2018, the Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy received information from the Arkansas Insurance Department regarding an investigation it was conducting into the business practices of Sentrix Pharmacy & Discount LLC and Kenneth Zielinski, the pharmacist in charge of Sentrix, according to documents in Curis Pharmacy v. Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy, filed Dec. 8 in Little Rock.

The insurance department had received reports of representatives from Sentrix cold-calling people who were recipients of workers compensation benefits, taking their information, contacting their doctors, filling prescriptions for them and then billing the insurance carrier thousands of dollars for what was later deemed medically unnecessary medication.

Sentrix prepared a compound topical pain cream for all three and billed the workers comp insurers for the $900 cream, the same of which was sent to all patients, even though each suffered from different work-related injuries, according to documents.

Two of the six appellate judges dissented, arguing mostly that the record did not support the findings, adding that “elements of Sentrix's business practice appear shady and distasteful… However, shady and distasteful are not the standards of review this court is required to apply in this case.”

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