A federal grand jury in the Western District of Oklahoma returned a 103-count indictment on June 20, 2018 against a physician, a licensed pharmacist and the owner of a home-visit physician practice and clinic in Wellston, Oklahoma. The pharmacist owned a retail pharmacy in the same building as the clinic.
According to the indictment, from September through December 2015 the three conspired to dispense prescription controlled substances, including hydrocodone, morphine and fentanyl. The physician allegedly provided the pharmacist with stacks of pre-signed blank prescription pads, and the clinic owner allegedly gave the pharmacist access to patient records so that invalid refills could be prepared. Claims submitted to Medicare for those prescriptions were alleged to be false claims.
The case was investigated over several years by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. The clinic owner pleaded guilty to health care fraud in July 2019, the pharmacist pleaded guilty to health care fraud in November 2019, and the physician pleaded guilty in January 2021 to distributing fentanyl without a valid prescription and to health care fraud.
In late January and early February 2021 the court sentenced the physician to 42 months of probation, the pharmacist to 54 months of probation and the clinic owner to 24 months of probation. Under their plea agreements the physician agreed to surrender his Oklahoma medical license and not reapply for three years, and the pharmacist agreed to surrender her Oklahoma pharmacy license permanently. The court ordered joint restitution of $53,468.74 to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and $20,301.51 to the Oklahoma Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.