4 Tennessee pain clinics accused in fraud scheme have closed

Four Tennessee pain management clinics have abruptly closed amid state and federal health insurance fraud investigations.

The Tennessean reports the clinics formerly with PainMD and rebranded under the name Rinova officially closed Wednesday.

Federal authorities last year accused PainMD and its parent company, MedManagement, of inflating profits by giving patients unnecessary injections that they then requested reimbursement for through federal health insurance programs. State authorities previously accused the parent company of similarly defrauding TennCare.

State and federal authorities have filed lawsuits over the allegations, and three PainMD nurses were indicted last month on related fraud charges.

PainMD has operated more than two dozen clinics in Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia.

Clinic owner and ex-PainMD executive Dr. Benjamin Johnson and PainMD attorney Jay Bowen weren’t immediately reached for comment.

———

Information from: The Tennessean, http://www.tennessean.com

source: abcnews.go.com