Tampa Pain Clinic Doc, Assistant Sent to Prison for Medicare, Prescription Fraud

Dr. Jeffrey Friedlander was sentenced earlier this month to nine years in federal prison for conspiring to defraud Medicare and for illegally prescribing drugs oxycodone, morphine, hydrocodone and alprazolam. His physician’s assistant Troy Wubbena received a ten year sentence for the same charges. The court also entered a money judgment in the amount of $317,047.13 against both men – the estimated proceeds Friedlander and Wubbena received as a result of their illegal activities – to be repaid to Medicare.

Both men were ordered to forfeit their Florida licenses to practice medicine (or to assist in the practice of medicine) and Friedlander was ordered to forfeit his DEA registrations.

Friedlander practiced primarily out of  the Neurology and Pain Center, with clinics located in Tampa, Sarasota, Lakeland, St. Petersburg, Jacksonville, and Orlando, Florida. Wubbena was part owner of the clinics with Friedlander.

According to court documents, Friedlander had allowed unauthorized employees, including Wubbena, to prescribe drugs to patients without adequate supervision or participation. They would use blank prescription forms pre-signed by Doctor Friedlander. Investigators claim that many of these prescriptions were issued for controlled substances to patients without conducting adequate physical exams, making proper diagnosis or considering alternative treatment options.

An investigation commenced several years ago with the use of undercover officers posing as clinic patients.

Court documents also state that between 2005 and March of 2009, Friedlander and Wubbena caused the submission of false claims to Medicare for reimbursement for services that had not been performed.

Wubbena previously had pleaded guilty in a separate but related case as an organizer and leader of an Oxycodone trafficking conspiracy. He was sentenced on August 26, 2010, to serve 10 years in federal prison. The sentences in both cases were ordered to be served concurrently.

Friedlander acknowledged in his plea agreement that while he did not know directly what other clinic employees were doing, he deliberately ignored what was happening.

Both Friedlander and Wubbena faced possible sentences of up to 20 years in federal prison.

See Also:

• Tampa Pain Clinic Owner Indicted Again on Drug Charges

• Tampa Doctor Indicted on Drug Charges