Toledo Couple Who Operated Clinic Sentenced for Mail, Wire, and Health Care Fraud

TOLEDO – Dr. Oliver Jenkins, age 61 and Sherry-Ann Jenkins, age 59, of Jessup, Georgia, were sentenced to prison yesterday by U.S. District Judge Jack Zouhary after earlier being convicted by a jury of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and health care fraud. Dr. Oliver Jenkins was sentenced to 41 months imprisonment to be followed by one year of supervised release and a $15,000 fine.

Sherry-Ann Jenkins was sentenced to 71 months imprisonment to be followed by two years of supervised release and a $25,000 fine. Restitution will be ordered at a later date.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Dr. Oliver Jenkins, who was an Ear, Nose, and Throat M.D. at the Toledo Clinic, and his wife Sherry-Ann Jenkins, who had a Ph.D. but was not licensed to practice medicine in Ohio, started a new business called the “The Toledo Clinic Cognitive Center”. The Jenkinses represented to the Toledo Clinic that patients suspected of cognitive disorders, particularly dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease, could come to the Cognitive Center for neurocognitive testing, diagnosis, treatment, and referrals, and that Sherry-Ann Jenkins would administer the neurocognitive testing under the supervision of Dr.Oliver Jenkins. The Jenkinses represented that Dr. Oliver Jenkins would make a diagnosis, and provide medical treatment, or a referral. Instead, the Jenkinses engaged in a scheme to
defraud. Dr. Oliver Jenkins never saw or treated patients at the Cognitive Center. Sherry-Ann Jenkins ordered PET scans of patients’ brains, interpreted the scans, diagnosed patients, one as young as 21 years old, with Alzheimer’s Disease, dementia, or other impairments. She also recommended patients take coconut oil to improve memory, and instructed certain patients to see her every 3-6 weeks for the rest of their lives. The Jenkinses billed Cognitive Center patients and health care benefits programs using Dr. Oliver Jenkins’ billing number.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Toledo, Ohio, the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General in Cleveland, Ohio, the Ohio Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, and the Ohio State Medical Board. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brian McDonough and Robert Melching.