Jonathan Morris, MD, a physician and practice owner in Columbia, Mo., was indicted April 8 on 23 counts of healthcare fraud and 15 counts of illegally prescribing controlled substances.
From at least May 1, 2019, through April 8, 2025, Dr. Morris billed Medicare and Medicaid for medical services that were claimed to have been provided by Dr. Morris, but in reality were provided by assistant physicians he employed, according to an April 22 news release from the Justice Department.
Dr. Morris left the assistant physicians unsupervised while he left the clinic to travel and to work at a different clinic.
The indictment also accused Dr. Morris of issuing prescriptions for controlled substances outside of the usual course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose.
Investigators said they are currently aware of about 20 individuals who received prescriptions for a total of over 15,000 individual dosage units of controlled substances from Dr. Morris.
Additionally, Dr. Morris is accused of submitting false and fraudulent claims for reimbursement to the Medicare and Missouri Medicaid programs for controlled substance prescriptions, the release said.
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