Anesthesiologist Sentenced on Health Care Fraud Charge

June 25, 2010 - BOSTON, MA—The former chief of the acute pain clinic at Bay State Hospital in Springfield, Massachusetts was sentenced today in federal court for health care fraud.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Mark Dragonetti, Special Agent in Charge of the Food & Drug Administration-Office of Criminal Investigations; Susan J. Waddell, Special Agent in Charge of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General—Office of Investigations; and James C. Burrell, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation-Boston Field Division, announced today that SCOTT REUBEN, 51, of Longmeadow, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ponsor to six months' imprisonment to be followed by three years of supervised release, a $5,000 fine, restitution of $361,932 and forfeiture of $50,000. REUBEN pleaded guilty to engaging in health care fraud on February 22, 2010.

At the earlier plea hearing, the prosecutor told the court that had the case proceeded to trial, the government’s evidence would have proven that REUBEN obtained research grants from pharmaceutical companies for the purpose of performing research on pain management, including one from Pfizer in 2005 regarding the use of multi-modal analgesia for patients having and recovering from anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction surgery. Despite entering into contracts by which pharmaceutical companies funded his research and provided free drug for the studies, REUBEN did not actually perform certain studies, including one funded by Pfizer on the topic of “Perioperative Administration of Celecoxib as a Component of Multimodal Analgesia for Outpatient Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction Surgery.” However, REUBEN caused medical journals, including Anesthesia and Analgesia to publish articles touting his multi-modal analgesia therapy despite knowing that he had falsified the research.

The case was investigated by the Food & Drug Administration-Office of Criminal Investigations, Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General-Office of Investigations, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy Sternberg of Ortiz’s Health Care Fraud Unit.