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YOUNGSTOWN -- In addition to former Braking Point Recovery Center owner Ryan Sheridan, three other people were recently sentenced in the $24.5 million Braking Point Recovery Center Medicaid fraud case.
The frauds took place from 2015 to 2017 at Braking Point's facilities at 45 N. Canfield Road in Austintown, and a second location that opened later in the Columbus area.
Dr. Thomas Bailey, 45, and Dr. Arthur H. Smith, 55, were each sentenced in U.S. District Court Jan. 21 to two years of probation, six months of community service and a $5,000 fine.
Bailey, of Poland, was a physician and medical director for Braking Point's Austintown detoxification center. Smith, of Austintown, was a physician and served as medical director over the entire Austintown location.
Lisa M. Pertee, 51, of Sunbury, Ohio, who was operations director for the Columbus-area facility and was responsible for all of the facility's billings, was sentenced to one year of probation with 60 days of community service, and ordered to pay $2,200 in special assessments.
Sheridan, 39, was sentenced recently to 7 1/2 years in prison and ordered to make restitution of $24.5 million for drug and alcohol recovery services from Braking Point that were not medically necessary, lacked proper documentation or otherwise ineligible for reimbursement.
Two other co-defendants, Kortney L. Gherardi, 30, of Girard, program director for the Austintown facility; and Sheridan's ex-wife, Jennifer M. Sheridan, 41, of Austintown, who was medical records and billing coordinator for the Austintown facility, will be sentenced later.
Gherardi will be sentenced at 11:30 a.m. March 10. Jennifer Sheridan will be sentenced at 10 a.m. June 16.
Prosecutors said Smith was the person responsible at the Austintown facility to keep accurate records of all controlled substances he received, sold or delivered. Smith was registered to prescribe the withdrawal drug Suboxone to 100 patients, but the facility ended up dispensing more than 3,000 doses in 2017, prosecutors said.
In his plea agreement, Smith admitted allowing Bailey to administer the narcotic knowing Bailey wasn't certified to do so.
Braking Point also did not develop an individualized plan of treatment based on a medical and physical evaluation by a licensed physician for its patients and determine the medical necessity for using Suboxone, prosecutors said.
Sheridan and Bailey used Smith's license to dispense the Suboxone to patients at Braking Point. Smith only went to Braking Point about twice per month and did not oversee Bailey's dispensing of Suboxone, prosecutors said.
U.S. District Court Judge Benita Y. Pearson told the doctors during their plea hearings in October they would not be able to participate in federal Medicaid or Medicare programs during the probation period, effectively keeping them from practicing medicine during those two years.
Among the offenses committed by the Sheridans and Gherardi were submitting Medicaid billings for drug and alcohol treatment services performed by case managers when, in fact, the patients were only excercising at the Braking Point Health and Fitness center.
Sentencing guidelines show that Gherardi will probably serve some jail time, but not more than 48 months, but the final decision is up to the judge.
Gherardi will be responsible for a joint restitution of about $2.4 million with Ryan and Jennifer Sheridan, officials said.
TENS OF MILLIONS
"These defendants stole tens of millions of dollars from taxpayers through fraudulent billing and other crimes," U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman said following Ryan Sheridan's sentencing. "They used the drug epidemic plaguing Ohio as a way to line their pockets and profited off the suffering of others."
"That beacon of hope for the addicted turned out to be a bonfire of our tax dollars. Heartless," Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said.
"Regardless of position, title, status, or degree, no one is above the law," said DEA Special Agent in Charge Keith Martin. "DEA will continue to work with U.S. Attorney Herdman's office to bring those who blatantly violate drug dispensing laws to justice."
"Ryan Sheridan and his co-conspirators deserve the sentences handed down in federal court for their fraudulent and deceptive criminal behavior," stated FBI Special Agent in Charge Eric Smith. "These individuals preyed on a healthcare system that is in place to help those in need and not to be used as an ATM to cipher millions of dollars from the taxpayers for their own pleasures."
erunyan@tribtoday.com