A Columbia physician who owns the Columbia Urgent Care clinic was arrested Wednesday and accused of defrauding Medicare and Medicaid, as well as prescribing drugs illegally to friends, others with substance abuse disorders and women with whom he had sexual relationships.
Jonathan Wayne Morris, owner of the clinic at 619 N. Providence Road since 2019, is accused of billing for services he didn’t provide, submitting false claims for reimbursement and using prescriptions to further personal relationships or attract more patients.
He was indicted April 8 in U.S. District Court on 15 counts of prescribing drugs illegally and 23 counts of health care fraud.
According to the indictment, the alleged fraud scheme entailed allowing assistant physicians to file fraudulent claims to Medicare and Missouri Medicaid programs. The assistants were medical school graduates who had not yet entered residency and thus were not allowed to file claims.
According to the indictment, the payments made by Medicare and Medicaid were deposited in his bank accounts.
The indictment also claims Morris let the practitioners train each other and run his clinic without supervision when he traveled abroad or worked at a clinic in St. Louis.
Morris is also accused of prescribing controlled substances outside his professional practice “and for no legitimate medical purpose.” The indictment claims Morris accepted under-the-table cash payments in exchange for the drugs.
“Morris routinely issued prescriptions for controlled substances to his friends and associates without conducting a medical evaluation and without regard for the patient’s medical condition or the medical necessity of the prescription,” the indictment reads.
It lists some recipients as women with whom he was engaged in a sexual relationship or those he supplied as part of his sexual advances. He also allegedly prescribed drugs to sexual partners, friends and others with known substance abuse issues.
Investigators found about 20 people who received prescriptions from Morris that added up to more than 15,000 individual dosage units. They called the Columbia clinic a “free-for-all when it comes to issuing prescriptions for controlled substances.”
Of the 15 counts in the indictment related to illegal prescriptions, seven were for dextroamphetamine-amphetamine, commonly known as Adderall. Adderall is a schedule II drug, considered to have the highest potential for abuse and possibly causing severe psychological or physical dependence.
Other drugs on the list are hydrocodone, a semi-synthetic opioid narcotic used to treat severe pain; alprazolam, commonly known as Xanax; clonazepam, known more widely as Klonopin; zolpidem tartrate, often sold under the brand name Ambien; and lorazepam, typically sold under the brand name Ativan.
According to the indictment, Morris also offered cocaine to some of the people who received his illegally prescribed drugs.
A detention hearing is set for Monday in federal court in St. Louis.
