HMS Alum Charged With Three Murders

Frank B. Fisher, a California doctor and 1981 graduate of Harvard Medical School, was charged with three counts of murder and is being held in the Shasta County, Calif. Jail on a $15 million bond.

The charges follow the deaths this summer of three of Fisher's former patients, all found with lethal doses of oxycodone in their systems, according to a Feb. 18 press release from the California Attorney General.

Oxycodone is an addictive narcotic commonly prescribed to patients suffering from extreme pain like that associated with end-stage cancer.

According to a statement, the state accused Fisher, in conjunction with pharmacy owners Stephen and Madeline Miller, of conspiring to distribute oxycodone--a controlled substance--"without providing good faith medical examinations and without need or medical justification."

According to the press release, investigators found that Fisher had been running what they termed a "patient mill" in which patients were given only cursory examinations and then received prescriptions for the drug.

In addition, the Department of Justice has charged Fisher with orchestrating an illegal kickback and referral program that directed business to the Millers' Shasta Pharmacy. According to the press release, the scheme resulted in more than $1 million of improper drug billings to Medi-Cal, the state-run health care system.

In a statement to the Associated Press on March 9, Fisher's lawyer Patrick Hallinan said the state had "overcharged" his client.

Halliman could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Calif. investigators began looking into Fisher when they noticed an increased level of overdose cases in some Shasta County emergency rooms. The high levels came in conjunction with the unusually high volume of oxycodone prescribed by Fisher and dispensed at the Miller's pharmacy.

Fisher, along with the Millers, pled innocent to the charges last Wednesday in Shasta County Superior Court. There, Judge James Ruggiero banned courtroom observers from wearing "Guilty of Caring" T-shirts and buttons that showed support for Fisher's cause.

According to the state press release, at the time of Fisher's arrest Shasta Pharmacy became the nation's top wholesale buyer of oxycodone in the state, and the 10th largest purchaser in the nation.

But in a March 3 article in the San Francisco Chronicle, Fisher said he ran a legitimate medical practice that treated "intractable pain" suffered by a mostly low-income clientele.

Fisher's arrest, however, has left a large number of former patients who become dependant on the oxycodone prescriptions. As a result, the county has established a hotline for Fisher's former patients to find new physicians.

--Wire dispatches were used in the reporting of this story.