October 8, 2020
The owner and operator of a Hamilton pain clinic was sentenced to ten years in prison. Nilesh Jobalia, 55, must also pay near $2.2 million in restitution to Medicaid, Medicare and the Bureau of Workers Compensation for health care fraud.
Jobalia owned and operated the Cincinnati Centers for Pain Relief from March 2013 to December 2017. It operated almost exclusively as a pain clinic but it wasn’t licensed as one, according to U.S. Attorney David DeVillers.
Patients were prescribed fentanyl, oxycodone, methadone, morphine and other controlled substances on many occasions without actually seeing the doctor.
“He was a dope dealer with a white coat and a license, and now he has neither,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said. “He shares responsibility for the misery of addiction and death that we call by the clinical name of the opiate crisis, and I am glad to support the work of the United States Attorney in bringing him to justice.”
In just one case, one customer’s prescriptions alone forced $450,000 in BWC payments for unnecessary drugs. In all, DeVillers said Jobalia was behind more than $2 million in false claims.
He got tens of thousands of dollars from a pharmaceutical company for speaking engagements about a fentanyl spray but the doctor, his staff and the pharmaceutical employees were the only ones attending the events held at fine restaurants.
Jabalia’s indictment was part of a nationwide opioid and fraud crackdown in 2018.
Source: WKRC Local 12