TENNCARE DRUGS SOLD 'HERE ALL THE TIME,' FENTRESS OFFICER SAYS

At least one rural Tennessee county also is dealing with illegal sales
of TennCare drugs on a wider scale.

''That happens here all the time,'' Fentress County Sheriff's
Detective Gary Ledbetter said.

In the past year, undercover operations have rounded up about 175 drug
sellers in the county about 120 miles northeast of Nashville. About
75% of those charged were on TennCare, said deputy district attorney
John Galloway.

Most were selling painkillers such as OxyContin and morphine,
Ledbetter said.

Although none was indicted on TennCare fraud and abuse charges,
detectives learned that they were on TennCare and got some of their
drugs through the state health insurance program, the Fentress County
officials said.

''TennCare pays for them to take a van to Nashville or Cookeville or
Chattanooga. TennCare pays for their drugs, and they come back here
and have a yard full of people waiting to buy drugs,'' Ledbetter said.
Some of the enrollees go to pain clinics in the cities to get their
prescriptions, he added.

''They make 100% profit,'' he said.

TennCare is required by law to provide transportation services to
Medicaid-eligible enrollees to visit doctors, said Lola Potter,
spokeswoman for the newly created TennCare Office of Inspector General.

Nearly half of Fentress County's population, 48%, are on TennCare, the
highest percentage in the state. The county had about 16,600 residents
in the 2000 Census.

''It's real bad,'' Fentress County Sheriff Ray Atkinson said. ''The
problem is worse than meth,'' he said, referring to methamphetamine, a
highly addictive and dangerous homemade stimulant.

Galloway said his office has no incentive to prosecute cases under
TennCare fraud laws because they carry shorter sentences than
convictions for drug possession.

''It also complicates your proof to some degree to have to link the
drugs they sold being from TennCare. We find a lot of people may be
going to TennCare doctors and other doctors, too,'' the deputy
district attorney said. ''The question is: Why are these people being
referred for these drugs and are these the most cost-effective way to
treat their ailments?''

TennCare Inspector General Deborah Faulkner is taking up an invitation
from Fentress County officials to advise law enforcement on how to
spot TennCare fraud, Potter said. TennCare investigators were on hand
last November during one of the Fentress County drug raids.