A federal grand jury in Kentucky charged two surgeons this week with illegal opioid distribution, healthcare fraud and healthcare fraud conspiracy.
Five details:
1. The Feb. 24 indictment accuses William Lawrence Siefert, MD, of Dayton, Ohio, and Timothy Ehn, MD, of Union, Ky., of illegally prescribing opioids to drug-seeking patients and billing Medicaid for unnecessary urinalysis testing of them.
2. Both physicians were employed by the Northern Kentucky Center for Pain Relief in Florence and allegedly defrauded Medicaid out of millions of dollars in medically unnecessary testing, according to a U.S. Justice Department news release.
3. The opioids Drs. Siefert and Ehn prescribed were contributing factors in the opioid overdose deaths of at least six patients, according to the indictment.
4. Both physicians were charged with conspiracy to unlawfully distribute controlled substances and conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud.
5. Dr. Siefert also faces charges of healthcare fraud and illegally distributing controlled substances. Dr. Ehn was separately charged with healthcare fraud.
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