A Northern Kentucky doctor and chiropractor were sentenced after their supposed involvement in a $4 million urine drug testing scheme, according to the Commonwealth of Kentucky Office of Attorney General Russell Coleman.
Coleman says 51 year-old Dr. Timothy Ehn, of Union, Kentucky, and 70 year-old Dr. William Lawrence Siefert, of Dayton, Ohio, were convicted on March 23, 2023, of healthcare fraud while working at Northern Kentucky Center for Pain Relief in Florence. In addition to healthcare fraud, Ehn was also convicted of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, Coleman adds.
Ehn was sentenced to two years and six months in prison and was ordered to pay $3,773,569.30 in restitution, while Siefert was sentenced to one year and six months in prison and ordered to pay $1,968,763.10 in restitution.
Court documents indicate Dr. Siefert and chiropractor Ehn, who also owned the clinic, were involved in offering opioids to patients who were seeking drugs despite not needing them. The clinic then billed Medicaid for millions of dollars for unnecessary urine tests that were related to these patients.
The indictment states that Ehn and Siefert’s supposed opioid prescribing conspiracy was a contributing factor in the opioid overdose deaths of at least six former clinic patients.
Evidence presented at the trial and court documents show that Ehn and Siefert continued their scheme even though their drug testing machine malfunctioned. Due to a lack of proper maintenance, the machine was producing false positive results for patients. The clinic derived three-quarters of its revenue from insurance proceeds related to drug testing, according to the indictment.
Source: WAVE
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