Four nurses, all of them affiliated with a Derby pain clinic, were responsible for nearly all of the state’s 2014 Medicare spending on the powerful opioid painkiller Subsys, which is at the center of a kickback probe.
New Medicare data for 2014 show the four nurses, all who worked at the Comprehensive Pain and Headache Treatment Center of Derby, were responsible for 279 claims for Subsys, at a cost of $2.3 million.
The highest prescriber was Heather Alfonso, an advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) formerly employed by the clinic who is awaiting sentencing on charges she took kickbacks from Arizona-based Insys Therapeutics for dispensing Subsys to patients.
The new data is the first indication that the propensity to prescribe Subsys extended beyond Alfonso, to other clinic staff.
None of the other three nurses has been implicated in an ongoing federal probe of Insys’ marketing of Subsys that resulted in the criminal charges against Alfonso.
The Derby clinic, located in Griffin Hospital, and a Meriden affiliate remain in operation.
Dr. Mark Thimineur, who runs the treatment centers, also has not been implicated. He did not respond to questions about the Subsys prescribing, and a clinic manager said she had no comment.
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