“Humans are the glory and the scum of the universe,” concluded the French philosopher, Blaise Pascal, back in 1658. Little of mankind has changed! We love, we hate. We help, we hurt. We reach out a hand to those in need, we use their weakness to benefit ourselves. Man encompasses the extremes. Even the more revered people of society, like physicians, are not immune from this. Using the glory and prestige of their elite status as physicians, Dr. William Siefert and Dr. Timothy Ehn committed a multi-million dollar health fraud scheme using opioids as bait.
Siefert and Ehn orchestrated their health care fraud scheme through Northern Kentucky Center for Pain Relief, a pain clinic in Florence, KY. Ehn was a chiropractor who owned the pain relief center. Siefert was a doctor specialized in anesthesiology and employed by Ehn. These two doctors billed Medicaid for millions of dollars in the strangest way. By authorizing medically unnecessary urinalysis testing for their patients.
Siefertt and Ehn maintained the scheme by making it easier for certain patients to gain access to opioids, making it necessary to undergo urine testing. On a scale of one to ten, for a fraudster the level of pain is always going to be ten. Those screenings were typically performed on faulty equipment and the doctors ignored the results, along with ignoring the needs of their addicted victims. On March 23, 2023, Siefert and Ehn were found guilty of Medicaid fraud.
This scheme may have done more than aid in patient addictions or steal from the U.S. taxpayer. The opioid prescriptions written by Siefert and Ehn likely contributed to seven fatal overdoes among former patients. However, the doctors were never charged in relation to these deaths because it could not be established that their prescriptions were the cause. It certainly didn’t help though.
Great job with the investigation by Kentucky Medical Fraud Control Unit.
Today’s Fraud Of The Day is based on article “2 doctors convicted for unnecessary urinalysis testing scheme” published by Highland Country Press on May 2, 2023
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Dr. William Lawrence Siefert, 69, of Dayton, Ohio, and Dr. Timothy Ehn, 50, of Union, Ky., orchestrated their health care fraud scheme through Northern Kentucky Center for Pain Relief, a pain clinic in Florence, Ky. Siefert, a medical doctor, was employed by the clinic, and Ehn, a chiropractor, was the clinic’s owner.
Siefert and Ehn engaged in a scheme to bill Medicaid for millions of dollars in medically unnecessary urinalysis testing for their patients, which included urinalysis testing purportedly conducted on faulty machinery.
