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Convicted of Acting as a Pill Mill & Doubling as an Insurance Fraud  Scheme  

In UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. PATRICK EMEKA IFEDIBA, NGOZI JUSTINA  OZULIGBO, Nos. 20-13218, 20-13303, United States Court of Appeals,  Eleventh Circuit (August 25, 2022)  Patrick Ifediba and Ngozi Justina  Ozuligbo appealed their convictions for health care fraud and related  crimes. Ifediba, a physician, operated a clinic called CCMC and employed  Ozu-ligbo, a licensed practical nurse, there.  Convicted of Acting as a Pill Mill & Doubling as an Insurance Fraud  Scheme  

The evidence at trial showed that CCMC prescribed large quantities of  opioids to patients who had no medical need for them and ran an  allergy-testing and treatment scheme in which it required insured  patients to undergo allergy testing and prescribed them medication  despite their negative allergy tests. The clinic billed Medicare and  private insurers for the tests and treatments.  Ifediba and Ozuligbo were indicted on substantive counts of health care  fraud, conspiracy to commit health care fraud, money laundering of the  clinic\'s unlawful proceeds and conspiracy to commit that crime. Ifediba  was indicted for unlawfully distributing controlled substances for no  legitimate medical purpose and for operating CCMC as a "pill mill" to  distribute the controlled substances to patients who had no medical need  for them.  

After a three-week trial featuring testimony by CCMC patients, medical  experts, and law enforcement officials, the jury convicted Ifediba and  Ozuligbo on all counts. The court sentenced Ifediba to 360 months of  imprisonment and Ozuligbo to 36 months.  BACKGROUND CCMC Operated as a Pill Mill and Required Insured Patients to Undergo  Allergy Testing and Treatment.  Ifediba and his wife, Uchenna Ifediba ("Uchenna"), also a physician,  were the only physicians at CCMC. Neither Ifediba nor his wife  specialized in pain-management medicine, but they wrote many  prescriptions for controlled substances-opioids. CCMC attracted patients  who were willing to wait over three hours in a dirty, crowded waiting  room to receive prescriptions for controlled substances.  Besides its opioid distribution, CCMC roped patients who had insurance  into an allergy fraud scheme. The scheme was a simple one. Every insured  patient who came to CCMC had to fill out a questionnaire on allergy  symptoms before seeing the doctor. No matter the patient\'s answers, an  allergy technician performed a skin-prick allergy test on the patient.  Regardless of whether the test results were positive or negative,  Ifediba prescribed immunotherapy to treat allergies and directed the  technicians to order the medication.