Tampa Bay Doctor Pleads Guilty to Drug and Fraud Charges

Dr. Jeffrey Friedlander pleaded guilty in a Tampa federal court this week to conspiring to distribute and dispense numerous controlled substances - Oxycodone, Morphine, Hydrocodone, and Alprazolam – and to conspiring to defraud Medicare. Friedlander faces a maximum penalty of twenty years in federal prison for the drug conspiracy and ten years for the fraud conspiracy.

According to the plea agreement, Friedlander, a licensed Florida physician, practiced out of a business called Neurology and Pain Center with clinics in Tampa, Sarasota, Lakeland, St. Petersburg, Jacksonville and Orlando. He was a participating physician in Medicare, submitting claims for reimbursement for his services and writing prescriptions for Medicare patients.

Friedlander and several employees of Neurology and Pain Center were indicted in March 2009 after law enforcement concluded a long-term investigation into the clinic’s prescription practicees. According to the plea agreement, Freidlander allowed unauthorized and non-medical employees to prescribe controlled substances to patients by using blank prescription forms that he pre-signed.

Prosecutors alleged that prescriptions were issued without conducting adequate physical exams, making proper diagnoses, or considering alternative treatment options. They further alleged that prescriptions were often issued with the knowledge that the patients receiving the controlled substances were misusing or abusing them.

Undercover detectives with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office were able to obtain prescriptions for controlled substances at NPC clinics on numerous occasions in 2008 and 2009 with little or no contact with Friedlander. According to their reports, the detectives often just asked for particular drugs and were given prescriptions for those drugs, with no medical basis and even after making clear that they had shared or intended to share the drugs with others.

In the plea agreement, Friedlander also admitted that he submitted false claims to Medicare for performing certain pain relief injections, when they actually had not been performed, had been performed improperly, or when they had been performed by unlicensed nonmedical persons outside Friedlander’s supervision. Friedlander also submitted false claims to Medicare for office visits coded at the highest degree of complication and requiring detailed involvement by the treating physician, when, in reality, unlicensed, non-medical persons had performed limited office visits outside of Friedlander’s supervision.

As part of the plea agreement, Friedlander will forfeit all assets obtained through his criminal activity including $317,047.13 (the gross proceeds traceable to the Medicare fraud). He will also forfeit his Florida medical license and his DEA Controlled Substance Registrations.

See Also:

• Doctor from Tampa & St. Pete Clinics Indicted on Drug Charges
• Another Tampa Bay Area Doctor Charged with Illegal Prescriptions
• Tampa Pain Clinic Owner Indicted Again on Drug Charges
• New Charges in Tampa Bay Pain Clinic Investigation