PainMD clinics, accused of fraud, abandoned patients’ medical records in locked storage units
The mystery of the missing medical records has been solved.
But how do you actually get to them? That’s a whole other problem.
PainMD, a Nashville-area pain management company that recently shuttered clinics and stranded patients without medicine, disclosed in a court filing this week they’ve lost access to countless patient medical records that are stuck in storage units spread across Tennessee, Virginia and South Carolina.
PainMD said it can no longer reach the records because, as the company has been crumbled into bankruptcy while accused of widespread fraud, all the employees with access the storage units have left.
This is a huge conundrum for former patients, many of whom need those records now. Some ex-patients have been without access to their records since six PainMD clinics — recently re-branded under the name Rinova — closed their doors without warning in May.
The closures sent patients searching for new pain clinics, but due to concerns about the opioid crisis, many pain management doctors will only accept new patients with both a medical referral and up-to-date medical records.
PainMD left its patients with neither.
That’s exactly what happened to Esther Jeffries, 59, an ex-patient of the PainMD clinic in Cookeville. Since the clinic closed, Jeffries has been without her medical records and unable to find a new doctor to refill her prescription. Her medication ran out last week.
“I’ve been going through withdrawals. I’ve been sick,” Jeffries said. “I feel like I’m climbing the walls and my husband is about ready to take me to the emergency room to see if I can get any help.”
PainMD accused of injecting patients for pure profit
PainMD and its parent company, MedManagement, once owned or operated as many as 30 clinics in Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina. Federal and state authorities have sued PainMD and its owners of defrauding the government out of millions by pressuring patients into unnecessary painful injections, then intentionally mislabeling the injections while billing Medicare, Medicaid and TriCare. Three PainMD nurse practitioners were indicted on these same allegations in April.
PainMD: 3 nurse practitioners indicted, gave patients ‘very painful’ bogus injections
While these court cases were ongoing, PainMD sold its clinics to company insiders, then re-branded six clinics in Tennessee and Virginia under the new name of Rinova. The Rinova clinics operated for a few more months before abruptly closing on May 8.
Rinova promised to help patients by mailing a final prescription extension and releasing their medical records, but these promises have not been kept. Since the closures, The Tennessean has spoken with at least 25 ex-patients who said they’ve struggled to find a new pain doctor because they can’t access their medical records.
The likely location of those records was revealed last Friday when PainMD filed for bankruptcy, saying it has only $2.8 million in assets but more than $13 million in debts.
Medical records locked in storage
As part of bankruptcy filing, the company revealed that some patient medical records are maintained electronically, but that “many” patient records are kept in file boxes in storage. Medical records and charts are currently kept in at least 23 storage units spread across 10 companies. PainMD claims it can no longer enter any of these storage units because “everyone with access is no longer employed with company.”
That’s a problem for the storage companies too.
Danny Sutton, the owner of SelfStor Solutions in Cookeville, said he rented two units to PainMD, which abruptly stopped paying or answering his calls this month. Sutton is now stuck with two units that he can’t rent because PainMD abandoned stuff inside.
Sutton is legally forbidden from opening the units and checking what was left behind.
“If there are medical records inside, that’s news to me,” Sutton said. “But if they are medical records, there has to be somebody that will be needing those records.”
PainMD could not be reached for comment. Messages left with PainMD’s civil attorney, Jay Bowen, and its bankruptcy attorney, Robert Mendes, were not returned.
The bankruptcy filing also reveals PainMD’s primary owner , Michael Kestner, borrowed $178,000 from the company in 2015. The debt has not been replayed.
Brett Kelman is the health care reporter for The Tennessean. He can be reached at 615-259-8287 or at brett.kelman@tennessean.com. Follow him on Twitter at @brettkelman.
Filed under: General Problems
It’s worse than I thought. These people that can do things LIKE this are not just trying to make money, they are sadistic animals.