A Louisiana physician, Adrian Dexter Talbot M.D., has been sentenced to 87 months in prison for his involvement in a scheme to illegally distribute over 1.8 million doses of Schedule II controlled substances and defraud health care benefit programs of more than $5.4 million. The sentencing follows Talbot's conviction on July 22, 2024, by a jury in the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Talbot, aged 59 and from Slidell, owned Medex Clinical Consultants, a medical clinic that accepted cash payments for prescriptions of controlled substances such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, and morphine. Evidence presented at trial showed that Talbot pre-signed prescriptions even after taking a full-time job elsewhere and hired another practitioner to do the same at his direction. These prescriptions were distributed without appropriate patient examinations.
The fraudulent activities led to health care benefit programs being billed for medications prescribed without medical necessity. Programs affected included Medicare, Medicaid, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana.
The case was announced by Supervisory Official Antoinette T. Bacon of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division alongside officials from various agencies including the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana and Special Agents from HHS-OIG and VA-OIG.
The investigation involved several agencies: HHS-OIG, VA-OIG, FBI, and the Louisiana Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. The prosecution team consisted of Trial Attorneys Sara E. Porter and Gary A. Crosby II along with Assistant Chief Justin Woodard and Deputy Chief Kate Payerle from the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.
The Fraud Section is part of an ongoing effort against health care fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program which has charged over 5,400 defendants since March 2007 with fraudulent billing totaling more than $27 billion.
Further information on these efforts can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit.