April 26, 2011

To My Patients:

You may have recently seen the article concerning a Guilty Plea with the North Carolina State Attorney General’s Office and Community Wellness Center (CWC).  Following is the correct account of how the plea bargain occurred and the truth behind the situation.

January 25, 2005, CWC was raided with lead investigator Darrin Taylor and other members of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI). The SBI interviewed several employees who had been discharged from CWC because of inappropriate behavior. 

The original affidavit initiating the raid on CWC, January 25, 2005, is a public document and can be located at the Federal Court House in Greenville, NC. The document first recognizes Yvonne Phillips, a medical assistant, who was interviewed. Her statements included she had left "employment under a mutual agreement due to her gossiping and calling in prescriptions in for some of Dr. Nunn's patients." Ms. Phillips was terminated from employment because she had written narcotic prescriptions for her mother and many of her friends who were not patients of the clinic. Once a pharmacist in the area notified the clinic of her activities, she was terminated and legal charges were brought against Ms. Phillips. Ms. Phillips was interviewed by Mr. Taylor, SBI agent, on several occasions before her scheduled court date. Somehow the court system forgot to notify CWC of her court date and a representative did not attend. She went to court and because there was no CWC representative present, felony charges were reduced to misdemeanor charges and she received probation. This is public information located at the Craven Court house. She currently works for another physician's office. Ms. Phillips made multiple false statements during her interview to an SBI officer without repercussions of dishonesty.

The second employee who was interviewed by the SBI was Vickie Rhodes, who functioned as a receptionist. Ms. Rhodes voluntarily terminated her position from the clinic and later decided she wanted to return. She was denied reemployment as her unruly behavior directed toward patients was unacceptable. Ms. Rhodes and Ms. Vinson (below) were close friends with Ms. Vinson taking exception to the decision of her denying re-employment. Ms. Rhodes made multiple false statements and described patients as cattle. Ms. Rhodes received no repercussions for giving false information to an SBI agent.

Ms. Pat Vinson, the office manager of CWC was interviewed by the SBI after she was terminated from her position at CWC. Soon after her termination, Medicare received an anonymous telephone call identifying faulty billing practices and unethical behavior. Ms. Vincent later informed the SBI "she left Dr. Nunn's employment, under a mutual agreement in November 2003." Ms. Vincent was in charge of billing practices, hiring of individuals and ensuring all guidelines and requirements were adhered to by state and federal regulations. Ms. Vincent made multiple false accusations to SBI agents which were areas she was responsible to ensure compliance. She had been employed at the clinic for seven years and never indicated anything was incorrect with billing or employee practices. She received no repercussions for dishonesty with interviews with SBI agents.

Ms. Melanie Hicks, who functioned as a medical assistant, was interviewed by Darrin Taylor, SBI agent. Ms. Hicks was terminated from employment as she enjoyed playing games on the computer instead of performing her job. She made multiple false statements similar to Ms. Vincent's, Ms. Rhodes and Ms. Phillips. She received no repercussions for dishonesty with her interviews with SBI agents.

Accusations that were made by discharged employees included death of patients, which was unfounded. Other statements included signing override forms for patients to receive necessary medications through Medicaid. This statement is true as patients who needed medication and could not afford the medication were assisted with this form. There was nothing illegal with this practice. Billing for services not rendered was described by these discharged employees, which is not true as services were rendered and many not billed to either insurance, including Medicare/Medicaid, or the patient. There were many false statements given to SBI agents too numerous to repeat.  The Whistleblower program, established by the government, most probably will compensate these discharged employees for providing this false information.

Interestingly, there have been no patient complaints concerning any wrong doing at the clinic.  Neither Medicare nor Medicaid has denied payment for services rendered during the past six years of the investigation.   

The final affidavit identifying criminal information presented by the United States District Attorney is summarized as follows:

1. From the Attorney General’s Office "Medicare part B pays for outpatient physical therapy services only if they are provided by an individual meeting the qualifications... for a physical therapist or by an appropriately supervised individual meeting the qualifications... for physical therapist or by an appropriately supervised physical therapist assistant."

Response: CWC does not employ physical therapists or physical therapy assistants. The clinic is an osteopathic clinic with manual manipulation only performed by this physician. Other therapies including electrical stimulation, ultrasound and whirlpool therapies do not require special training. Electrical stimulation is the same therapy many use while carrying a Tens unit in your pocket with pads placed on your spine to receive electrical stimulation to reduce pain. There is no special training required for use of this adjunct therapy.  Since the Attorney General’s Office has declared special training is necessary, perhaps a class-action lawsuit against Medicare for not following this guideline and providing you a Tens unit without notification of the special training requirement is in order.  Whirlpool therapy, on the other hand, is a non-supervised procedure. There are no special requirements with training for ultrasound.