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Former Workers’ Compensation Doctor Convicted Of Prescription Abuse, Arrested Again
By Jorge Alexandria - May 23, 2012

Lisa Michele Barden, a 42-year-old former workers’ compensation physician, was arrested just after 8:30 a.m. on Haven Tree Lane by the Corona, California, police on Saturday, May 19, on suspicion of falsifying or forging a prescription after she picked up some painkillers at Main Street Pharmacy in Corona. She apparently called in a prescription using another doctor’s name, but then paid for the pills with a check bearing her real name, Corona police said.

Corona Sgt. Kim Velasco said Barden posed as another doctor and called in a prescription for a painkiller to the Main Street Pharmacy. Barden then came in to pick up the pills, saying she was a family member of the patient. She then paid for the prescription. Employees grew suspicious when they remembered previously seeing her in the pharmacy. They called the doctor whose name Barden had given them and that doctor denied writing the prescription. Police officers, noting Barden’s name on the check, assembled a photo lineup that included her pictures, and employees identified her. Bail was set at $5,000. As of this writing she remains in custody.

Dr.  Barden was previously arrested in January of 2009 after a year-long investigation by the California Department of Justice's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement and the Riverside Regional Pharmaceutical Narcotic Enforcement Team and convicted of 274 felony counts of workers' comp fraud, identity theft, and dispensing prescriptions unlawfully. In January 2011, she was fined almost $50,000, ordered not to practice medicine for three years, and was given a break when a judge sentenced her to seven years, eight months for those crimes but suspended all but 332 days of that sentence. She failed to take advantage of that break, and if Ms. Barden is convicted in the latest case, she might have to serve out the remainder of the suspended sentence.

Trial evidence presented in her earlier case showed that in 2008 she faked a knife attack (on herself) outside the Palm Springs clinic where she worked, then filed a false police report and false report of injury, while also separately picking up hundreds of prescriptions for Vicodin and Oxycontin at different pharmacies under various patients' names and using other doctors' prescriptions pads. A 2009 news release from the state Attorney General’s office said Barden illegally obtained prescription drugs on 131 separate occasions from more than 40 different pharmacies where she obtained more than 30,000 tablets of addictive painkillers. The jury concluded that she stabbed herself and fabricated a claim that she was assaulted outside of her office in order to collect workers’ compensation benefits.

An administrative law judge suspended Barden’s license to practice medicine in California on Feb. 27, 2009, according to the state Department of Consumer Affairs website. Her license was ordered revoked April 9, 2012. The revocation took effect May 10. A  restitution hearing was pending to determine whether Dr. Barden must pay up to $600,000 to the insurance companies she defrauded.

Lisa Barden was not a likely “candidate” to become a defendant in a workers’ compensation case or in any criminal proceeding. She was a woman who had the dedication to become a doctor, went through 18 years of school, receiving her medical license in 2002, had the desire to help many people in the Coachella Valley, loved her job and had no desire to leave it under any circumstances or for any reason. 

Now it seems she threw it all away and squandered any and all opportunities to rehabilitate-- all due to a disease called drug

"Narcotics prescribed by physicians kill 40 people per day."

addiction. On any given year, approximately 3.3 million people in the U.S. are addicted to prescription pain medications. According to a report released by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), 15,000 people in the United States die each year from this. "We're in the midst of an epidemic," says CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden. "Narcotics prescribed by physicians kill 40 people per day."

Deaths due to prescription pain killer overdoses now exceed the number of heroin and cocaine overdose deaths combined, says Frieden. Prescription deaths have tripled since 1999.

More prison time would do nothing to solve Dr. Barden’s underlying drug problem. In this writer’s opinion, addiction is best handled with treatment. This, however, may fall on many deaf ears in the populace, which have grown tired of a convicted criminal getting what may appear to be a free pass. Or the district attorney, who overseeing the initial workers’ compensation conviction, may press for more prison time as he received specialized funding for his unit, and prosecution of Dr. Barden’s cases is more aggressive as a result. 

Jorge Alexandría is a former Workers’ Compensation Claims Supervisor with over 20 years of experience in risk management. He holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration and is now employed by the Federal government. The views and knowledge expressed in this article are Jorge Alexandria's alone.

 
 

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