former boliver clinic physician indicted for illegally dispensing narcotics, health care fraud
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - David M. Ketchmark, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced a former physician at a Bolivar, Mo., health clinic was indicted by a federal grand jury today for illegally distributing prescription drugs and for health care fraud.
Nolan Denny Crisp, 75, of Half Way, Mo., was charged in a five-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Springfield, Mo.
Crisp was employed at Pomme de Terre Wellness Center (also known as the Bolivar Family Wellness Clinic and Northwoods Psychiatric Services, Inc.) in Bolivar from June 2009 through Nov. 10, 2010 to provide pain management and other services to patients.
Today’s indictment charges Crisp with four counts of illegally distributing controlled substances. Crisp allegedly issued prescriptions for OxyContin, Oxycodone Hydrochloride, Oxycodone-Aspirin and Endocet without a legitimate medical purpose and outside the course of usual professional practice. The indictment alleges that Crisp caused a total of 1,225 tablets of these narcotics to be illegally distributed between Dec. 1, 2009, and Oct. 7, 2010.
The indictment also charges Crisp with one count of health care fraud. Crisp allegedly issued illegal prescriptions to Medicaid beneficiaries, who then filled those prescriptions at pharmacies. Those pharmacies then submitted claims to Medicaid for filling the prescriptions, and Medicaid paid those claims. According to the indictment, Medicaid paid a total of $4,619 in claims for illegal prescriptions and an additional $12,111 in claims for office visits at the clinic that were not medically necessary. Crisp allegedly provided services to individuals at the clinic when those individuals, in fact, were only seeking illegal prescriptions for narcotics.
Today’s indictment also contains a forfeiture allegation, which would require Crisp to forfeit to the government any property derived from the proceeds of illegal narcotics distribution, including $4,619, as well as any property derived from the proceeds of health care fraud, including $16,731.
Ketchmark cautioned that the charges contained in this indictment are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tom Larson and Cindi Woolery. It was investigated by the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bolivar, Mo., Police Department and the Missouri Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.
