Although the 45-count indictmentoccurred in December, good for The Tennesseanto now publish this substantial story about a Nigerian ‘new American’ alleged crook.
Editor: I should subtitle posts like this: ‘when new Americans kill us!’ Hereis the news (hat tip: Tomarose),
Tennessee pain clinic handed out opioids at ‘cattle calls’, says undercover federal agent
It was October 2017 when the undercover federal agent slipped into the Clarksville pain clinic for the third time, hiding in plain sight among dozens of patients crowded into a small waiting room.
A receptionist called out 20 names, then the agent lined up with other patients.
They were each handed a prescription slip. Then they waited. A few hours later, the receptionist called their names again, collected their money and handed all of them drugs.
The undercover agent paid $377. He left with 84 Oxycodone tablets, an anti-inflammation drug and a muscle relaxant. Nobody bothered to examine him. He never saw a doctor. This is how federal prosecutors say prescriptions were handled at the clinic of Samson Orusa, a Middle Tennessee doctor and pastor who allegedly wrote 66,353 prescriptions for addictive drugs, including opioids, from 2014 to 2017. Orusa was indicted on charges of drug trafficking and healthcare fraud last year, and his attorney has vowed to fight the allegations in court. Orusa, 56, has for about 20 years run a medical practice in Clarksville [50 miles Northwest of Nashville] and been pastor at God’s Sanctuary Church International, which he runs with his wife, Abigail, who uses the church title of “prophetess.” Orusa attended medical school at the University of Benin in Nigeria and performed his residency at Columbia University in New York, according to a state licensing database.
Federal court records, recently obtained by The Tennessean, describe the investigation in more detail than ever before, revealing undercover agents visited Orusa’s clinic five times in 2017.
Investigators also logged when Orusa came and went each day and filmed the clinic parking lot for three months.
And what they saw was alarming, court document state. Patients at Orusa’s clinic were rarely examined by the doctor and often prescribed opioids in large groups through what authorities refer to as “cattle calls.”
[….]
The newly obtained court documents also detail how Orusa allegedly profited from mass prescribing, collecting more than $1 million in cash during a six-month span in 2017. Prosecutors are currently trying to seize the contents of six personal bank accounts to which they say Orusa funneled more than $920,000 in illegal profits. Most of that money came from drug sales, court documents state, but Orusa is also accused of defrauding the government by billing Medicare or Medicaid for examinations that he couldn’t possibly have done.
More here.
Some of the stories about Orusa allege that patients died of drug overdoses while under his ‘care.’
I can assure you that this type of practice is going on near you. Watch for it! If you have a friend or family member going to a pain clinic (especially one run by a foreign doctor), keep an eye on them and the clinic and don’t hesitate to turn in the doctor/clinic if you see something fishy.
I can assure you that this type of practice is going on near you. Watch for it! If you have a friend or family member going to a pain clinic (especially one run by a foreign doctor), keep an eye on them and the clinic and don’t hesitate to turn in the doctor/clinic if you see something fishy.
Sad!