Florida pain management clinic ordered closed

FLORIDA – A Tampa-area pain management clinic has been ordered closed by a federal court, and the clinic’s owners have been ordered to pay civil penalties associated with alleged violations of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), the U.S. Department of Justice has announced.

According to a statement by the Department of Justice (DOJ), the clinic’s owners and its former physician must collectively pay $600,000 in civil penalties pursuant to agreed resolutions in the case.

In a complaint filed in February 2021, the United States alleged that Dr. Tobias Bacaner wrote prescriptions for opioids without a legitimate medical purpose and outside the usual course of professional practice while employed at Paragon Community Healthcare, a pain clinic in New Port Richey, Florida.

The complaint alleged that Paragon’s owners, Theodore Ferguson II and Timothy Ferguson, managed the clinic’s operations and profited from the unlawful prescribing while ignoring obvious signs of drug abuse and diversion.

The complaint further alleged that Dr. Bacaner and the Fergusons used their jointly owned pharmacy, Cobalt Pharmacy, to unlawfully fill prescriptions issued at Paragon without scrutiny.

The order against Bacaner requires him to pay $500,000 in civil penalties and prohibits him from prescribing, administering, dispensing, or distributing controlled substances, among other restrictions.

The order against the Fergusons and Paragon requires them to pay $100,000 in civil penalties jointly.

The order also requires Paragon to permanently close and places restrictions on the Fergusons’ ability to own or work at entities that administer, dispense or distribute controlled substances in the future.

The defendants also reportedly agreed to permanently dissolve Cobalt Pharmacy, which closed shortly before the government filed suit.

“Physicians who prescribe opioids without a legitimate medical purpose and outside of the usual course of professional practice and others who facilitate that conduct will be held accountable,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.

“The department will continue to aggressively use all available enforcement remedies to prevent the unlawful diversion of potentially dangerous prescription drugs.”

U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington entered the consent decree in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

The investigation was conducted by the DEA’s Tactical Diversion Squad in the Tampa District Office.

The United States was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsay S. Griffin and Trial Attorneys Scott Dahlquist and Tom Rosso of the Justice Department’s Consumer Protection Branch.