Palm Springs Doctor Sentenced To Jail, Probation

A Coachella Valley-area physician who stole patients’ identities, used other doctors’ prescription pads to obtain thousands of highly addictive painkillers for herself and filed false workers’ compensation and police reports was sentenced today to a year in jail and five years probation.

Dr. Lisa Michelle Barden, who pleaded guilty to 274 felony charges and was convicted of two more counts last week, was taken into custody following her sentencing.

She will serve 180 days of her term in jail, with the remainder to be served on weekends under house arrest. Barden faces a prison sentence of seven years and eight months if she violates any terms of her probation.

She is also forbidden from practicing medicine for the next three years and must be reinstated by a medical board after that period, Deputy District Attorney Debra Postil said.

Attorneys plan on setting a date within the next two months for a restitution hearing, in which Barden could be ordered to pay up to as much as $600,000 to insurance companies she defrauded, the prosecutor said.

As terms of her probation, Barden must perform 1,000 hours of community service, enroll in a narcotics addiction program and undergo routine drug testing, Postil said.

Barden pleaded guilty Dec. 15 guilty to illegally obtaining Vicodin and Oxycontin pills on numerous occasions, but stood firm on going to trial on a felony charge of filing a false workers’ compensation report and misdemeanor charge of making false police report.

Barden maintained that she did not fabricate an account of being assaulted and stabbed, which resulted in those counts, but a jury disagreed.

Postil lost a bid to get Barden sent to state prison for a year.

“She abused a position of trust with patients,” the prosecutor said.

Two of those patients spoke during the sentencing hearing. Heather Halvorsen and Lorie Harrison each said they live with anxiety regarding medical practitioners because of Barden’s actions.

“They said they felt violated by the very profession that is supposed to keep them well,” Postil said.

A representative from Employer’s Insurance Co. testified that the workers’ comp insurer paid about $25,000 to Barden during her recovery from stabbing wounds that a jury found were self-inflicted. Her disability employment insurance paid close to $75,000, Postil said, and she was given about $500,000 of medical treatment relating to the injuries.

Prosecutors said Barden stole 15 patients’ identities and faked other doctors’ signatures to obtain Vicodin and Oxycontin pills.

She was arrested on Jan. 29, 2009, following a yearlong investigation by the California Department of Justice’s Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement and the Riverside Regional Pharmaceutical Narcotic Enforcement Team.

The task force was a cooperative effort of the state Department of Insurance’s fraud division and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

According to investigators who followed her between February 2007 and December 2008, Barden illegally acquired more than 30,000 pills, primarily hydrocodone, or Vicodin, and oxycodone, or OxyContin. Such drugs typically are indicated for treatment of pain, but also can induce euphoria and reduce anxiety.

The Rancho Cucamonga resident, also known as Lisa Degner, worked at several Palm Springs medical clinics. Barden visited 43 pharmacies on 131 occasions to get her drugs, according to BNE investigators.

She became the focus of an investigation after several pharmacists reported that she was showing up to retrieve prescriptions under different names.