Doctor gets 18 months in prison for scheme that included Western Virginia clinics

From his medical practice in North Carolina, Dr. Wendell Randall allowed his DEA registration number to be used to prescribe drugs to patients he rarely saw at pain clinics in Western Virginia.

For his services over several years, Randall was paid more than $300,000 – not by his patients, but by L5 Medical Holdings, a company that needed his prescribing privileges to operate what prosecutors say was a drug and health care fraud enterprise.

A judge sentenced the former physician to 18 months in prison Tuesday during a hearing in Roanoke's federal court.

"This pain clinic was basically dealing drugs under the guise of a legitimate medical clinic," U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Dillon said. "And by leasing out his registration number, [Randall] essentially facilitated that."

Randall, 73, is one of about a half-dozen heath care professionals and executives charged in an investigation of L5 Medical Holdings, a now-defunct business that once operated pain clinics in Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Lynchburg, Madison Heights and Woodlawn.

Federal authorities say profits were more important than patients at the centers, where many at-risk people were prescribed more opioid painkillers than they needed. Others who became hooked were given Suboxone, a controlled substance used to treat opioid addiction.

It was Randall's authorization to prescribe Suboxone, through a registration number issued by the DEA, that figured most prominently in his work for L5 Medical Holdings.

Although he seldom visited the clinics or examined the patients, Randall allowed nurses and other non-authorized staffers to use his registration number to call in prescriptions to pharmacies.

That allowed patients to receive controlled substances with little medical oversight.

"These are vulnerable patients, very vulnerable patients, and he abrogated his role completely" as a physician responsible for their well-being, Dillon said in pronouncing Randall's sentence.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Cagle Juhan had asked for a prison sentence of two to three years, saying that doctors who over-prescribe painkillers share the blame for Western Virginia communities that have been "ravaged by the opioid epidemic."

Randall, who pleaded guilty last November, was allowed to remain free on bond after Tuesday's hearing. Dillon ordered him to report to a yet-designated federal prison by no sooner than May 1.

Meanwhile, Randall faces similar charges in North Carolina, where authorities say he illegally prescribed painkillers and defrauded government insurance programs from his practice near Mount Airy.

A federal indictment charges Randall and other unnamed co-conspirators at the pain management clinic, called the National Institute of Toxicology PLLC, with health care fraud, unlawful distribution of controlled substances, and money laundering.

Although Randall spent most of his time at the North Carolina practice, he clearly saw the financial benefit offered by employment with L5 Medical Holdings.

Prosecutors pointed to text messages and other communications from Randall indicating that he wanted compensation for allowing staffers at the pain clinics to use his DEA authorization to issue prescriptions, known as "slots," for Suboxone.

Randall demanded payment, "often complaining about untimely payments or threatening to withhold the use of his slots if he was not paid more or more promptly," according to court records that detail a conspiracy that lasted from 2016 to at least February 2020.

"There is not enough revenue for slots to hold my interest," Randall once wrote in a text to a co-worker, prosecutors said. But, Dillon noted, "apparently there was enough revenue for quite a long time, because he continued to do so."

Juhan said the absentee physician played a pivotal role in the operation of what he called a "sham medical practice."

The founder of L5 Medical Holdings has pleaded guilty to health care fraud conspiracy and agreed to pay $3.8 million in restitution to Medicare and Medicaid for false billings from the clinics.

L5 Medical Holdings often billed for more expensive visits with Randall, when in fact patients were seen by less-credentialed staffers. At least six people have been convicted so far in the case, which includes allegations of heath care fraud and illegal prescriptions that go beyond Randall's actions.

"Despite lab coats and doctor offices, this was, in essence, a drug conspiracy," Juhan wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

Defense attorney Lawrence Woodward of Virginia Beach asked Dillon to impose probation for his client, citing as mitigating factors his advanced age, health problems, and all the good he did during a lifetime as a doctor and before that as a member of the U.S. Marine Corps.

Randall surrendered his medical license in North Carolina and is in the process of doing so in Virginia, he said.

Woodward also said there was no evidence that any of Randall's patients were harmed by the drugs they received.

But Dillon said it was clear that Randall endangered the very people he was supposed to protect, through "his abrogation of any sense of responsibility." The judge also fined the defendant $5,000 and ordered him to pay a $200,000 forfeiture.

Like many white-collar criminals, Randall was motivated by money and suffered few of the societal ills that can lead the underprivileged into the criminal justice system, Juhan argued.

"Here, Randall was not nudged to the cliff of criminality by dire circumstances," the prosecutor wrote in court records. "Rather, he took a running go and swan-dived off of it."