‘In trouble with the law.’ Lexington lab, E. KY clinic hook up in kickback scheme.
The manager of an Eastern Kentucky clinic has admitted taking kickbacks to refer patients for drug testing at a Lexington laboratory.
Theresa C. Merced pleaded guilty Jan. 10 to three charges: taking cash to refer people for services covered by a health care program; lying to federal authorities; and trying to get a witness to lie and back up her story.
Merced was manager of St. John Neumann’s Extended Hours medical clinic in Breathitt County, where her husband Pablo Merced, a doctor, provided substance-abuse treatment, according to her plea agreement.
Patients in treatment for addiction to drugs such as opioids often are required to take part in urine testing to make sure they’re not misusing drugs. Merced was involved in referring samples from patients of the clinic to labs to be tested.
In December 2018, she called the head of a lab in Lexington and asked for kickbacks in return for sending business to the lab, according to the plea agreement.
Merced wanted cash, but also asked the lab CEO to pay to hire employees at the clinic and to pay some utility costs.
The two talked several times in 2019, with Merced warning the lab owner at one point to be discreet because she didn’t want “to be in trouble with the law,” according to the court document.
The lab CEO met Merced in Breathitt County in August 2019 and gave her a check for $4,000, which he described as “earnest money” toward a total bribe of $14,000.
Documents made public in the case don’t give the name of the lab or the man who headed it, identifying him only by the initials R.C.
After authorities got wind of the scheme and interviewed Merced last September, she denied knowing anything about the $4,000 check.
She told state and federal agents her husband was careless with money and had probably borrowed the $4,000 from R.C. for a vacation.
Later that day, Merced called R.C. and told him she had told authorities the $4,000 was a loan.
When R.C. told her the memo line on the check said it was for rent, not a loan, and that his accounting records also described it as rent, she asked him to alter the records to list the money as “rent/loan.”
“We’ll synchronize . . . so we won’t incriminate each other,” Merced acknowledged telling R.C. at the time.
Merced’s attorney, Darrell A. Herald, said it appeared R.C. cooperated in the investigation of Merced.
The most serious charge included in Merced’s plea has a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, but her sentence is likely to be less under advisory guidelines.
U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves scheduled sentencing in May.
There have been other cases in Kentucky involving fraud at drug-testing labs.
The Medicaid fraud unit of the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office and the U.S Department of Health and Human Services investigated the case involving Merced.
