Complaint Review: Dr. Steven V. Kozmary - Las Vegas Nevada

 I am a 52 year old widow and have been seeing Dr. Kozmary for 17 years, the last 10 or so with his PA Kristin who is wonderful.  For all these years I have gone to him each month for my prescriptions as there is really nothing to be done with what I suffer from except to ease the pain.  While my husband was alive he was also a patient for about 5 years.  So for 17 years I have been taking urine tests, 17 years of clean urine tests until . . .

Earlier this year my urine test said that I was using methanphetamines!  I said it was absolutely wrong and ridiculous and quite frankly humerous if you knew me.  A couple of months later Kristin asked if I wanted to get the back shots again since my Medicare Advantage Insurance would now cover them, I said no as they really didn't do anything for me the time that I had them and that I no longer had someone to take and pick me up. 

Fast forward to October 8, 2013 when I opened my mail and received a "Letter of Discharge from Practice" re: inconclusive urine test! The letter goes on to tell me that I should "place myself in a drug rehab program promptly as well as find another physician promptly"!  I was beyond offended to say the least.  It follows with what to expect if I do not get another pain doctor, what my withdrawal symptoms will be from the meds he has prescribed me for 17 years!  I had just had my monthly visit with him on October 5th, he couldn't have talked to me about it then?

Of course I immediately called the office and wanted to talk to him and/or Kristin because I knew that there was nothing in or out of my urine that should/shouldn't have been there ~ I KNEW!  Only the office manager would talk to me but wouldn't tell me anything but I was welcome to come to the office and look at my file.  I said that the results were wrong and that I wanted to be re-tested any day and any time Kozmary wanted, all he had to do is call me whenever I would take a urine, blood and or hair test, whatever test he wanted but that the test he is relying on is faulty, NO!  Could I write an affidavit for my file stating that I disagreed with the findings, NO!  Will he take it out of the file, NO!  Will he call and talk to me, NO!  I have been seeing him for 17 years and all of a sudden I am cut off and left adrift.

I stated that I belive the law says that he must give me a full 30 days of medication and that I was there on the 5th, therefore I needed another month's supply of medication to give me time to get a referral and find a new pain doctor (with a faulty urine test in my permanent record this was not going to be easy) and to make an appointment in 3 weeks, it was nearly impossible to do.  NO!  I am no longer his patient therefore he will not re-test me, he will not prescribe another month's worth of medication and when I asked if he could refer me to another doctor I got another big NO!

I wrote numerous e-mails pleading to be re-tested, stating that isn't it more likely that an overworked and underpaid lab worker made a mistake than it is that I all of a sudden at my age decided to use illegal drugs?  His snail mail reply to all my e-mails was that they use "independent labs" which I have found out by researching that this just isn't true.  I said that they are accusing me of a crime and I don't have any recourse?  No one would talk to me, no one.

Today I called and asked for "records" and she must be new because I asked her to fax me my most recent urine test results and the one from earlier this year that said I had meth in my system.  I got 13 pages, most of them nothing but the most recent one was for a 58 year old in Texas with a Texas doctor and were for hepatitis.  The one from earlier in the year said nothing about anything that shouldn't have been there, everything was negative.  According to these tests he had no basis to discharge me from his practice.

I can not stress enough how offensive, appalling, disappointing, maddening, sad and so, so stressful this is and has been.

Would you not think that a doctor, especially one you have been seeing on a monthly basis for 17 years would, if he truly believed I was abusing illegal drugs sit me down at my appointment (which I remind you I was just there 3 days before the discharge and was scheduled again for Oct. 31st) and discuss his concerns?  To talk to me and ask me? And if I was using illegal drugs and he was concerned (which he should be as a doctor) wouldn't you think he would talk to me about options, my health etc. . ?  It is beyond my conprehension that any doctor but especially one who has been prescribing me narcotics for 17 years would without any discussion with me about his concerns would assume that I need re-hab and then just cut me adrift!  Everyone knows how long it takes to get into a doctor's, espeically a specialist and I had 3 weeks to do this with no assistance from Kozmary before I went into severe withdrawals that he so kindly warned me about in his letter!  It's beyond dumbfounding, and it just can't be up to a medical board's standard of care.

I have a theory by doing a little web research.  I found that Kozmary was fined 1 million dollars in 2011 for ripping off medicare, medicaid and tricare(?) all federal insurance providers.  In the settlement he stated that they did have enough evidence, hence the settlement.  So, I think he is getting rid off all his patients on these programs (me included) because he can no longer over bill or bill them for services not performed.  I don't know, it's just my theory but I hope to find out because this behavior can not go un-noticed or un-punished.  He is leaving people in dire straights. 

The bottom line is that he is not to be trusted.  If what I have been reading from numerous sources is true and that he is doing the urine testing in house and profitting from it there has to be a conflict of interest in that alone. 

He discharges you on unfounded claims, will not talk to or respond to you and leaves you hanging with absolutely no assistance except a toll free number to find a rehab program! It is beyond a disgrace and I can not stress enough what this feels like. to literally be accused of doing something but not told what, to know that whatever that something is is going to be in your permanent record and to have zero recourse.  And of course the worry about finding a new doctor, having enough medication and the fear of going through complete withdrawals from meds you have been taking for years, it's terrifying.  He is a doctor, this is not supposed to happen, he is supposed to help heal not cause pain, stress, withdrawals etc. . .

Do not visit this doctor, if he can do this to a patient after 17 years he will do it to you too, unless of course, he is able to make a lot of money off of you.  Patient beware.