A Kentucky federal grand jury on Feb. 24 indicted two surgeons on charges of illegal opioid distribution, healthcare fraud and healthcare fraud conspiracy, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The indictment accuses William Lawrence Siefert, MD, of Dayton, Ohio, and Timothy Ehn, MD, of Union, Ky., of providing patients with illegally prescribed opioids. It also says the physicians, who were both employed by the Florence-based Northern Kentucky Center for Pain Relief, allegedly defrauded Medicaid out of millions of dollars in unnecessary urinalysis testing.
Both physicians were charged with conspiracy to unlawfully distribute controlled substances and conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. Dr. Siefert also faces separate charges of healthcare fraud and illegally distributing controlled substances, and Dr. Ehn faces a separate healthcare fraud charge.
The indictment also alleges the opioids prescribed by the physicians were contributing factors in the overdose deaths of at least six patients.