spini4
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2003
- Messages
- 795
TAMPA
Scans of spinal cords were not performed. Knees, elbows and other joints were not examined. Blood pressure was not taken, vital signs never checked.
Pain management doctor Jeffrey Friedlander did not ask his patients why they wanted potent pills like oxycodone, and he didn't offer referrals for physical therapy because he was rarely in the office, according to court documents.
On days that Friedlander showed up to work, he usually cloistered himself in a back room to doze off or watch cartoons, federal health investigators said.
Patients received prescriptions for at least 120 narcotic-grade painkillers per visit anyway.
Friedlander's clinic, the Neurology & Pain Center, billed insurance companies like Medicare for the bogus exams and prescriptions.
While health care fraud is nothing new, federal authorities say an increase in the number of illicit pain clinics like Friedlander's is adding another element to the old schemes.
So-called pill mills and pharmacies in the Tampa Bay area and throughout the state that dole out massive doses of painkillers are starting to surpass other medical businesses when it comes to Medicare fraud.
"The growth of these pharmacies, pain clinics and bad doctors is now an industry," said Ryan Lynch, an investigator for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. "It's becoming a cultural phenomenon."
Lynch's agency already has helped convict 11 people who committed $1.7 million in Medicaid fraud in Tampa this year. Friedlander's false claims of $317,000, along with several pharmacies' claims, are included in that figure.
The 12 federal investigators at the health agency's Office of the Inspector General in downtown Tampa focus heavily on pill mills. Lynch said he and his agents are currently working several cases of Tampa Bay area pain management centers and pharmacies duping Medicare.
"They're abusing and distorting the mission of those programs," Lynch said. "Someone always pays for the prescription. Someone pays for that piece of paper, that golden ticket, whether it's Medicare, Medicaid, or patients paying in cash."
Every month, investigators review about 100 cases of potential health care fraud. About half involve pain clinics and pharmacies in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties, Lynch said.
The biggest pill mill bust so far has involved Friedlander, 51, who owned clinics in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Lakeland, Sarasota, Orlando and Jacksonville.
In 2008, local authorities received tips that Friedlander and his employees "routinely prescribed highly addictive controlled substances without establishing a medical necessity and outside the course of professional practice," court documents said.
What was uncovered during a two-year investigation was a drug-trafficking ring that involved Friedlander scribbling his signature on stacks of blank prescriptions pads. Employees filled out how many pills patients received, although the assistants were not qualified or licensed to do so.
The director of the clinics, Troy Wubbena, recruited people — some were high school students — to sell opiate-based pills such as oxycodone, hydrocodone and methodone on the street, investigators said.
Clinic employees also filed the bogus Medicare claims for tests and procedures that were never performed. The fake checkups and tests were filed under Medicare Part B, which covers medical procedures.
For people who didn't pay cash for pills, staff filed false reports under Medicare Part D, which applies to prescription medication.
Wubbena had asked friends and associates for their Medicare or Medicaid information, created fake patient files with them, and file the claims to the federal health insurance agency to acquire more pills, investigators said.
Friedlander was rarely in the office and Wubbena masterminded the sale of the painkillers, using the other clinics across the state as hubs for distribution, according to court documents.
"There's an old expression in health care fraud: a doc in the box," Lynch said of Friedlander. "That's what he became."
One day, Friedlander went to the office in his pajamas and wandered the halls in a daze, said federal health investigators, who worked undercover during the bust.
continued at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40298345/ns/local_news-tampa_fl/
Scans of spinal cords were not performed. Knees, elbows and other joints were not examined. Blood pressure was not taken, vital signs never checked.
Pain management doctor Jeffrey Friedlander did not ask his patients why they wanted potent pills like oxycodone, and he didn't offer referrals for physical therapy because he was rarely in the office, according to court documents.
On days that Friedlander showed up to work, he usually cloistered himself in a back room to doze off or watch cartoons, federal health investigators said.
Patients received prescriptions for at least 120 narcotic-grade painkillers per visit anyway.
Friedlander's clinic, the Neurology & Pain Center, billed insurance companies like Medicare for the bogus exams and prescriptions.
While health care fraud is nothing new, federal authorities say an increase in the number of illicit pain clinics like Friedlander's is adding another element to the old schemes.
So-called pill mills and pharmacies in the Tampa Bay area and throughout the state that dole out massive doses of painkillers are starting to surpass other medical businesses when it comes to Medicare fraud.
"The growth of these pharmacies, pain clinics and bad doctors is now an industry," said Ryan Lynch, an investigator for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. "It's becoming a cultural phenomenon."
Lynch's agency already has helped convict 11 people who committed $1.7 million in Medicaid fraud in Tampa this year. Friedlander's false claims of $317,000, along with several pharmacies' claims, are included in that figure.
The 12 federal investigators at the health agency's Office of the Inspector General in downtown Tampa focus heavily on pill mills. Lynch said he and his agents are currently working several cases of Tampa Bay area pain management centers and pharmacies duping Medicare.
"They're abusing and distorting the mission of those programs," Lynch said. "Someone always pays for the prescription. Someone pays for that piece of paper, that golden ticket, whether it's Medicare, Medicaid, or patients paying in cash."
Every month, investigators review about 100 cases of potential health care fraud. About half involve pain clinics and pharmacies in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties, Lynch said.
The biggest pill mill bust so far has involved Friedlander, 51, who owned clinics in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Lakeland, Sarasota, Orlando and Jacksonville.
In 2008, local authorities received tips that Friedlander and his employees "routinely prescribed highly addictive controlled substances without establishing a medical necessity and outside the course of professional practice," court documents said.
What was uncovered during a two-year investigation was a drug-trafficking ring that involved Friedlander scribbling his signature on stacks of blank prescriptions pads. Employees filled out how many pills patients received, although the assistants were not qualified or licensed to do so.
The director of the clinics, Troy Wubbena, recruited people — some were high school students — to sell opiate-based pills such as oxycodone, hydrocodone and methodone on the street, investigators said.
Clinic employees also filed the bogus Medicare claims for tests and procedures that were never performed. The fake checkups and tests were filed under Medicare Part B, which covers medical procedures.
For people who didn't pay cash for pills, staff filed false reports under Medicare Part D, which applies to prescription medication.
Wubbena had asked friends and associates for their Medicare or Medicaid information, created fake patient files with them, and file the claims to the federal health insurance agency to acquire more pills, investigators said.
Friedlander was rarely in the office and Wubbena masterminded the sale of the painkillers, using the other clinics across the state as hubs for distribution, according to court documents.
"There's an old expression in health care fraud: a doc in the box," Lynch said of Friedlander. "That's what he became."
One day, Friedlander went to the office in his pajamas and wandered the halls in a daze, said federal health investigators, who worked undercover during the bust.
continued at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40298345/ns/local_news-tampa_fl/
