FBI, DEA search office of pain doctor in Amherst

Sept. 12--Dr. Eugene J. Gosy says he's heard it all when it comes to drug addicts seeking pain medication.

House fires. Break-ins. Anything to prove their meds were stolen or destroyed.

"Patients will even present us with the police reports to 'prove' that these events occurred," he told The Buffalo News in 2011.

Three years later, Gosy's pain medication practice -- the busiest in the state -- is the one under scrutiny.

Armed with a search warrant, federal agents Friday raided Gosy's office on College Parkway in Amherst.

No one was arrested, but agents -- there were more than a dozen at the scene -- left with several boxes of material.

"We executed a search warrant, but it's part of an ongoing investigation so I can't comment further," said Michelle Spahn, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Buffalo.

Maureen P. Dempsey, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Buffalo, also confirmed the search at 100 College Parkway but would not comment on why agents were there, what they were looking for or the target of their investigation.

The search involved the FBI, DEA, U.S. Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General and the New York State Department of Financial Services, which deals with banking and insurance issues.

Jesse Baldwin, a lawyer for the doctor, said he could not talk about Friday's search but described Gosy and his staff as well-respected experts in the pain management field with a long record of excellence.

"Dr. Gosy has fully cooperated with authorities in this matter," Baldwin said, adding: "Dr. Gosy is a highly prominent and well-respected pain management physician, not only in Western New York but across the United States. Gosy and his staff have a long history of providing the highest-quality pain management care to their patients."

Gosy, 53, a board-certified neurologist, runs Gosy & Associates Pain and Neurology Treatment Center, believed to be the largest of its kind in New York State. Two other doctors work in the office as well.

In 2011, state officials confirmed Gosy was the No. 1 prescriber of controlled substances in New York.

Gosy wrote 10,280 prescriptions in 2011 to Medicare recipients. That was the most written for Medicare patients by any of the 637 neurologists in New York, according to federal prescription data obtained by Propublica, a nonprofit investigative news agency based in New York City.

That data showed the 10,280 prescriptions were worth $1.33 million retail, and written for 1,416 patients, 39 percent of whom were 65 years or older and 53 percent of whom were low-income patients. Eighty-five percent of the 1,416 patients filled at least one prescription for a narcotic painkiller.

The largest number of Medicare prescriptions, almost 2,000 of them, was for hydrocodone, a prescription opioid. The second-most prescribed drug was oxycontin, followed by morphine sulfate then fentanyl.

All four drugs are opioids, effective painkillers that can also be highly addictive.

Opioids, in recent years, have become popular street drugs. Throughout the United States, more people are now overdosing on opioids than on heroin and cocaine combined. Also, police throughout the country report that prescription opioid dependence has led to heroin addiction, since, on the streets, heroin is sometimes less expensive for addicts to obtain than opioid medication.

Gosy has previously described his center as a "model" practice that has helped thousands of patients from as far away as Jamestown and Rochester with chronic pain return to work and improve their quality of life. But the practice has come under some criticism.

Gosy was sued three times on behalf of current or former patients who fatally overdosed on prescribed painkillers, according to state reports.

In one case, a jury found him negligent for causing the patient pain and suffering, but not for her death. In the other case, a jury cleared him. The third case was dropped by the plaintiff, Baldwin said.

Gosy was also fined $1,000 in 2009 by the state Health Department for improper record-keeping related to controlled substances. Gosy characterized the fine as a minor administrative issue and defended his work in the lawsuits.

Gosy was also among the Buffalo-area doctors a gang of street dealers scammed in 2010 into prescribing painkillers they then sold on the streets.

"Pain clinics like ours are like magnets for prescription drug abusers," he said in 2011. "We are known to be scrupulous, compassionate and strict."

In a 2013 interview with The News, Gosy said he became even more vigilant after the 2011 arrest of a Niagara Falls pain medication doctor, Pravin Mehta, and after the state tightened regulations on prescription opioid painkillers.

Pain medication doctors like himself must be vigilant with their patients because of the addictive nature of these drugs, Gosy said.

"The responsibility is on the providers, as well as the patient side," Gosy said in the 2013 interview.

Scott Scanlon of The Buffalo News staff contributed to this report.

email: pfairbanks@buffnews.com; sschulman@buffnews.com

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