Eight Tennessee doctors charged in a Kentucky drug case

LISTEN – WHAT’S UP DOC? PROFITS? –

March 8, 2021 – At one time, 73 percent of the prescriptions from two Tennessee drug-treatment clinics involved in the case were filled in Kentucky, a federal agent said.

The company named in the indictment is EHC Medical Offices, PLLC, which had clinics in Harriman and Jacksboro. Robert Taylor, a Tennessee doctor, owned the clinics during the time covered in the charges but sold them in 2018, according to court documents.

Taylor faces the most charges in the case, including conspiracy to illegally distribute buprenorphine and anti-anxiety drugs; conspiracy to falsify medical records, to launder money and to commit wire fraud and health fraud; money laundering; and taking part in transactions involving property derived from criminal activity.

Buprenorphine, often called by the trade name Suboxone, is a drug used to help people deal with an addiction to opioid drugs.

It is often diverted from legal sources and sold illegally. People addicted to drugs often use it to keep from getting sick from withdrawal when they can’t get drugs such as pain pills, but the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has said it can also be abused to get high.

The others charged in the case are physicians Evann Herrell, Mark Grenkoski, Kari McFarlane, Helen Bidawid, Stephen Cirelli, Eva Misra and Matthew Rasberry; nurse Lori Barnett, who managed EHC; and Kentucky residents Elmer Powers and Brian Bunch.