Manager of clinic that Kentucky drug dealers used as source of supply pleads guilty
The former office manager of a clinic that Kentucky drug dealers used as a source of supply has pleaded guilty.
Lori Barnett pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiring to illegally distribute controlled substances.
Barnett, a registered nurse, was in charge of day-to-day operations between 2013 and November 2018 at EHC Medical Offices PLLC, a Tennessee business that had clinics in Jacksboro and Harriman.
EHC billed itself as a provider of treatment for opioid use disorder. The doctors there prescribed buprenorphine to people.
The drug, commonly referred to as Suboxone, is used in treatment because it blocks withdrawal symptoms as people try to get off opioid painkillers such as oxycodone, heroin and fentanyl.
However, people can also use buprenorphine to get high, and traffickers and people addicted to opioids often divert it to sell and abuse, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Doctors at EHC sometimes churned through more patients than they could reasonably see while providing appropriate treatment, which Barnett was aware of because she oversaw scheduling, she said in her plea.
The plea cited several examples of doctors writing prescriptions for unreasonably high numbers of people.
On March 24, 2015, for instance, one EHC doctor wrote prescriptions for 84 people, and on Dec. 31, 2015, five doctors at the EHC clinics wrote prescriptions for a total of 345 people, Barnett’s plea said.
Many of the people who went to the clinics were from southeastern Kentucky.
Some doctors who worked at the clinics have acknowledged in plea agreements that they sometimes didn’t spend adequate time examining, counseling and treating patients, and that they filled out forms saying they did evaluations or consultations they didn’t really do.
Buprenorphine is supposed to be used in conjunction with counseling.
Two Kentucky drug dealers who have pleaded guilty in the case, Brian Bunch and Elmer Powers, said they used EHC as a place to get prescriptions for buprenorphine and drugs such as Xanax to sell in the Knox County area.
Bunch said he used EHC as a source because he could pay cash for high-dose prescriptions of buprenorphine “even though he was not legitimately being treated for substance abuse addiction.”
Bunch and Powers said they paid for other people to go to EHC and get prescriptions, then turn over some of the drugs to them to sell illegally.
Several doctors who worked at the Tennessee clinics have pleaded not guilty. There were initially eight doctors charged in the case.
Robert Taylor, who owned the clinics, pleaded guilty and is to be sentenced next week. Barnett is scheduled to be sentenced in September.
If U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove accepts the plea Barnett entered last week, her sentence will be between 0 to 14 months.
Barnett also agreed not to contest federal authorities’ seizure of $212,301 from a joint account she had with Taylor. The two had lived together for years.
Taylor’s plea deal calls for a sentence of between 22 and 33 months and a fine of $200,000. He also will forfeit $13.8 million from financial accounts.
The Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy has a list of resources for people seeking treatment for substance use disorder. The number for the state referral line is 1-833-8KY-HELP (1-833-859-4357).
