Two former Western Slope doctors indicted in deaths of four patients - The Denver Post

Two former Western Slope doctors indicted in deaths of four patients - The Denver Post

Two former Western Slope doctors could face life in prison after a federal grand jury indicted them on charges of committing health care fraud and dispensing painkillers that resulted in the deaths of four patients.

On Tuesday, Dr. Sam Jahani, 49, was arrested by federal agents in Texas, where he had recently been living. Authorities are still looking for Dr. Eric Peper, 53, who resides in Summerland Key, Fla.

The indictment alleges Jahani and Peper defrauded Medicaid, Medicare and Rocky Mountain Health Plans by prescribing painkillers to patients outside the scope of professional practice and billing those services to those health care benefit programs.

Jahani and Peper prescribed powerful painkillers such as Oxycontin in doses they knew would endanger the lives of patients or cause fatal overdoses, the indictment says.

"Jahani billed and caused his business to bill for services not rendered, including for services claimed to have been provided to patients after the patients' deaths," the indictment says.

The government estimated the doctors made $3.22 million in fraudulent claims from 2006 to 2010.

Jahani operated three clinics under the name Urgent Care Inc. in Delta, Montrose and Grand Junction. Peper was Jahani's employee at the clinics in Delta and Grand Junction.

The doctors' cases will be heard in Colorado.