Brentwood, Tenn.-based Comprehensive Pain Specialists, co-founded by former anesthesiologist and state Senator Steve Dickerson, has blamed tighter regulations on its recent closings, according to Nashville Public Radio.
Here are five things to know:
1. In July, the pain practice began to close up shop shortly after its former CEO was indicted in an alleged Medicare kickback scheme. However, federal authorities were investigating the business before the fraud allegations occurred due to its in-house drug testing practices.
2. Founded in 2005, Comprehensive Pain Specialists was co-founded by a state senator as a subsidiary of Anesthesia Services Associates, which employed two lobbyists at the Tennessee State Capitol until last December. The lobbyists aimed to keep regulations loose, especially as legislators aimed to tighten efforts due to the opioid epidemic.
3. In 2015, Tennessee legislators passed a measure requiring physicians to own pain clinics but limiting the number of facilities those physicians could oversee. There were provisions that delayed portions of the law's implementation, which the Nashville Public Radio reported were "amendments that may have served to keep CPS going."
4. In 2017, regulators examined the company after it was reported that much of its money came from in-house drug testing.
5. CPS' general counsel released a statement saying regulatory burden on the healthcare industry and pain clinics have caused the business to "notify patients, physicians and other public health officials that it planned to initiate a responsible wind down of operations."