Kentucky Pain Clinic Owners Sentenced To Prison
Two Eastern Kentucky pain clinic owners, who previously admitted to conspiring with doctors to illegally dispense more than 50,000 prescription pills, were sentenced to federal prison on Friday, according to prosecutors.
U.S. District Judge Amul Thapar sentenced Tammy Cantrell, 41, of Oil Springs, Ky., to 108 months and Shelby Lackey, 52, of Williamsport, Ky., to 97 months, for conspiracy to distribute and unlawfully dispense Oxycodone and maintaining a drug involved premise.
In total, Cantrell, Lackey and one of their co-defendants have forfeited $1,128,206, as proceeds of the conspiracy.
At the time of their guilty plea, in April 2013, Cantrell and Lackey were the first pain clinic owners in the Eastern District of Kentucky (district includes 67 counties) to have federal convictions for such charges, according to prosecutors.
According to the plea agreements, the defendants owned and operated Care More Pain Management, LLC, located in Paintsville, Ky.
From 2008 until approximately February 2012, the defendants conspired with two doctors to dispense Oxycodone to Eastern Kentuckians without a legitimate medical purpose, according to prosecutors.
Specifically, Court records state that the doctors performed little or no physical examination before writing prescriptions that were usually for 90 Percocet pills.
Patients paid $200 for the initial visit and $185 for subsequent visits; all fees were paid in cash.
One of the doctors has admitted that he saw between 40 and 50 patients in one day, according to prosecutors.
In many instances, the doctors wrote prescriptions without seeing patients or signed blank prescriptions for office assistants to give to patients, according to prosecutors.
Cantrell and Lackey paid the doctors as much as $8,500 a week, according to prosecutors.
The clinic did not accept insurance and the doctors made no referrals for physical rehabilitation, according to prosecutors.
Neither Cantrell nor Lackey are medically certified and neither has any nursing experience, according to prosecutors.
In June 2013, Dr. Richard Albert was sentenced to 75 months in federal prison for his role in the conspiracy.
Another doctor, Rano Bofill, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge earlier this year and is awaiting sentencing, according to prosecutors.
The investigation was conducted by the DEA and the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger West prosecuted this case on behalf of the federal government.
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