Doctors at Tennessee clinics convicted in conspiracy that fed Kentucky drug trafficking
Four doctors from Tennessee clinics took part in a conspiracy that helped feed illegal drug sales in southeastern Kentucky, a jury has ruled.
The jury in federal court in Frankfort convicted Mark Grenkoski, Evann Herrell, Stephen Cirelli and Keri McFarlane on a charge of conspiracy to illegally dispense controlled substances by way of prescriptions they wrote.
The jury also convicted the doctors on related fraud and money-laundering offenses, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
“These physicians focused on their own greed and self-interests, not the needs of their patients,” Carlton S. Shier, IV, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, said in a news release. “Their illegal scheme had a damaging impact on their patients, fraudulently preyed on health benefit programs, and undermined the public’s faith in legitimate medical practices in this field.”
The doctors worked at one time at a business called EHC Medical that had offices in Harriman and Jacksboro, Tenn., but drew patients from several counties in southeastern Kentucky, according to court records.
Two Kentucky drug dealers charged in the case, Brian Bunch and Elmer Powers, said they used EHC as a source of supply for buprenorphine and other drugs such as Xanax because it was easy to get prescriptions from doctors there.
Bunch and Powers said they paid for other people to go to EHC and get prescriptions, then turn over some of the drugs to them to sell illegally in the Knox County area.
Buprenorphine, commonly referred to by the trade name Suboxone, is a legal drug used to treat addiction to opioid painkillers, but federal authorities say people also abuse it to get high, and it is often diverted to illegal sales.
Several other people associated with the clinics pleaded guilty earlier.
They were a doctor named Robert Taylor, who owned the clinics; Lori Barnett, the clinic manager; physicians Helen Bidawid, Eva Misra and Matthew Rasberry; and Powers and Bunch.
U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove sentenced Taylor to two years and six months in prison and a fine of $200,000.
Taylor also agreed to forfeit to the government $13.8 million seized from financial accounts.
The other doctors who pleaded guilty have not been sentenced.
Attorneys for the four doctors who went to trial argued that prosecutors didn’t present sufficient evidence for a jury to convict them.
Van Tatenhove overruled their request, saying there was sufficient evidence to justify convictions.
The evidence included several indications of improper prescribing, such as doctors at the clinics writing prescriptions for people who failed drug screens and providing prescriptions even after “blatant” signs that patients were diverting the drugs, Van Tatenhove said.
The EHC clinics didn’t take insurance and patients traveled long distances to get there and arrived in groups, which also can be indicators of illegal activity.
There also was evidence that the doctors, who were paid based on patient volume, saw so many patients that they didn’t provide adequate medical evaluations, according to the judge’s order.
On the last day of 2015, for instance, Taylor and four other doctors at his clinic saw a total of 345 patients, according to the court record.
In addition to the drug conspiracy charge, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, evidence showed the doctors conspired to falsify medical records, and that Herrell, Grenkoski, and McFarlane conspired to cause millions of dollars worth of fraudulent bills to be submitted to Medicare, Medicaid, and other health programs, the news release said.
