by The Ann Arbor Independent Editorial Team
Two Ann Arbor-area doctors face significant prison time after they were found guilty on March 23 of writing unnecessary prescriptions for narcotics.
The U.S. Attorney’s office in Detroit confirmed that 46-year-old Dr. William McCutchen, III, and 61-year-old Dr. Anthony Conrardy — who both worked at the Meghnot Comprehensive Center for Hope on the Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti border — provided people prescriptions for a 30-day supply of Oxycodone in exchange for $250 in cash.
In March 2015, employees and doctors affiliated with the Pittsfield Township-based Meghnot Comprehensive Center for Hope were indicted. They included Lillian Meghnot, Gerardo Alcala-Rivera, current clinic physician Anthony Conrardy, M.D., and former Meghnot Clinic physicians William McCutchen III, M.D., and Sharadchandra Patel, M.D.
The 17-count indictment alleges that from September 2011 to March 2015, the defendants conspired to unlawfully prescribe controlled substances, including Oxycodone, to patients who had no medical need for the drugs. No health insurance was collected, but the clinic charged patients $250 in cash per visit.
This conviction isn’t McCutchen’s first run-in with the law.
In 2005, Dr. William McCutchen, III, D.O., was licensed in both the state of North Carolina and Michigan. In March 2007, a malpractice payment was made on behalf of McCutchen to settle a case brought against him. In March 2008, McCutchen submitted an application to renew his medical license in the state of North Carolina electronically. On that application, he was “asked about any malpractice judgements or settlements involving him,” according to records of the North Carolina Medical Board, and “failed to disclose the malpractice payment.”
As a result, the North Carolina Medical Board informed Dr. William McCutchen, III that he would be required to attend a hearing on the matter in Nov. 2009.
In 2012, the North Carolina Medical Board issued a report which revealed that McCutchen had been arrested for drunk driving in August of that year and in the same month voluntarily made his North Carolina medial license inactive. After completing a six-week treatment program and entering into a five-year compliance contract with the North Carolina Physician’s Health Program, McCutchen petitioned the Medical Board for his license to be reinstated which the Board did in November of 2014.
Nine months after being indicted, Dr. Anthony Conrardy applied to have his medical license renewed in the state of Indiana. The Medical Licensing Board of Indiana, upon being told that Conrardy was under indictment, “moved to neither approve nor deny” the renewal of his license, but rather referred the case to the Indiana Attorney General. Conrardy is also licensed to practice in Wisconsin and Illinois.
Investigators say the Meghnot Comprehensive Center for Hope was a “pill mill” that supplied more than one million Oxycodone and other pills to drug-seeking customers.
The jury trial and convictions in Detroit followed a multi-year investigation by the DEA, FBI, Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General and the IRS.
Conrardy was convicted of five counts of unlawfully distributing Oxycodone and Dilaudid, which is a derivative of morphine; and McCutchen was convicted of four counts of unlawfully distributing Oxycodone.
Each counts carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $1,000,000.