Louisiana Doctor Sentenced for Distributing 1.8M Opioid Doses, $5.4M Health Care Fraud
TL/DR –
Dr. Adrian Dexter Talbot, a Louisiana physician, has been sentenced to 87 months in prison for illegally distributing over 1.8 million doses of controlled substances and defrauding health care benefit programs of over $5.4 million. Talbot owned and operated Medex Clinical Consultants, a cash-for-prescriptions clinic, and even after leaving the clinic, he continued to presign prescriptions for controlled substances to be distributed in exchange for cash. He was convicted of various charges including conspiracy to unlawfully distribute and dispense controlled substances, maintaining a drug-involved premises, and conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
Doctor Sentenced for Conspiring to Illegally Distribute Over 1.8 Million Doses of Controlled Substances and Health Care Fraud
Adrian Dexter Talbot, a Slidell-based Louisiana physician, has been sentenced to 87 months in prison for his involvement in a large-scale illegal distribution of Schedule II controlled substances. Talbot also defrauded healthcare benefit programs of over $5.4 million. He operated Medex Clinical Consultants, a medical clinic known for prescribing controlled substances like oxycodone, hydrocodone, and morphine to individuals for cash payments.
Talbot ignored the signs of drug-seeking amongst his patients, and in 2015, despite not being physically present in the clinic due to a full-time job in Pineville, Louisiana, he pre-signed opioid prescriptions for those who visited Medex. This activity continued when he hired another practitioner who also pre-signed prescriptions under Talbot’s instructions. The cash payments from these pre-signed prescriptions were deposited into a Medex account.
To cover up this illegal practice, Talbot altered patient records to create an appearance of regular patient examinations. He also had knowledge of patients filling their prescriptions using insurance benefits, causing fraudulent billings to healthcare benefit programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana.
On July 22, 2024, a jury in the Eastern District of Louisiana convicted Talbot of conspiracy to unlawfully distribute and dispense controlled substances, unlawfully distributing and dispensing controlled substances, maintaining a drug-involved premises, and conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
Investigation and Prosecution
The case was announced by Supervisory Official Antoinette T. Bacon of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, along with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana, Special Agents from the Department of Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General, the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, and Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill. The Louisiana Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, HHS-OIG, VA-OIG, and the FBI investigated the case.
The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Sara E. Porter and Gary A. Crosby II, Assistant Chief Justin Woodard, and Deputy Chief Kate Payerle of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.
Efforts to Combat Health Care Fraud
The Fraud Section of the Criminal Division leads the fight against health care fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program. As of March 2007, this program has charged over 5,400 defendants who have collectively billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $27 billion. For more information on this initiative, visit
www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit.
—
Read More Health & Wellness News ; US News