A Louisiana physician has been sentenced to 87 months in prison for his involvement in a scheme that illegally distributed over 1.8 million doses of prescription opioids and defrauded health care benefit programs of more than $5.4 million. Dr. Adrian Dexter Talbot, 59, of Slidell, was convicted of conspiring to distribute Schedule II controlled substances, including oxycodone, hydrocodone, and morphine, without proper patient examinations or medical justification.
Talbot, who owned and operated Medex Clinical Consultants, a medical clinic in Slidell, accepted cash payments from individuals seeking prescriptions for these controlled substances. Despite being absent from the clinic after 2015, Talbot continued to pre-sign prescriptions for patients he did not see or examine. He also hired another practitioner in 2016 to continue the practice under his direction. The fraudulent prescriptions were filled using insurance benefits, including Medicare, Medicaid, and Blue Cross Blue Shield, leading to millions of dollars in improper billing.
The scheme was uncovered through a joint investigation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the FBI, and the Louisiana Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. Talbot was convicted of multiple charges, including conspiracy to unlawfully distribute controlled substances and conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
The sentencing is a significant step in holding accountable individuals who abuse their medical licenses for personal gain, and it highlights the ongoing efforts to combat the opioid epidemic and health care fraud.
