Former Indian Health Services doctor charged with conflict of interest

GREAT FALLS – A former doctor with Indian Health Services in Browning was indicted on charges of conflict of interest for allegedly using his job to prescribe a diabetes drug from a pharmacy in exchange for kickbacks, U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme said.

An indictment filed on Feb. 26 charges Dr. Arnold Scott Devous, 67, of Billings, with federal medical officer with conflict of interest. If convicted of the most serious crime, Devous faces a maximum five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.

An arraignment is set for March 26 in Great Falls before U.S. Magistrate Judge John T. Johnston.

The indictment is merely an accusation. Devous remains innocent until proven guilty.

The indictment alleges Devous used his position as a medical officer for Indian Health Services in Browning to prescribe Farxiga, a Type 2 diabetes medication. Farxiga was not on the IHS formulary and could not be obtained at the facility.

The indictment further alleges that from about December 2015 to June 2016 in Teton and Glacier counties, Devous prescribed Farxiga to patients and entered into a business arrangement with a pharmacy in Choteau in which he, his wife and a person with whom he had been negotiating a prospective job would receive 80 percent of the profits of the sale of Farxiga from the pharmacy. The arrangement resulted in the receipt of about $45,590.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Weldon is prosecuting the case, which was investigated by the Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

Pacer case reference. 20-18.

If the above case is of interest to your media organization and the community it serves, we encourage you to monitor its progress through the U.S. District Court calendar and the PACER system.

To establish a PACER account, which will allow you to review documents filed in the case, please go to, http://www.pacer.gov/register.html. To access the district court’s calendar, please go to https://ecf.mtd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/PublicCalendar.pl.

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