A North Carolina physician, Henry Ronald Emery, Jr., 54, of Waxhaw, North Carolina, received a 6-month prison sentence and 1 year of supervised release for conspiring to allow his Drug Enforcement Administration registration number to be used for unlawful buprenorphine prescriptions, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina.
From September 2018 through 2022, Emery was a licensed physician with a family medicine practice and also worked for Church Ekklasia Sozo (CES), a nonprofit corporation operating as an online medical provider. The organization purported to provide opioid addiction treatment through telemedicine.
According to filed documents, patients were required to complete a short online questionnaire. Generally, a CES administrative staff member then contacted the patient, obtained payment, and used a medical prescriber’s Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) registration number to issue the prescription. Dr. Emery allowed administrative personnel to use his DEA registration number to issue more than 25,000 buprenorphine prescriptions across multiple states. Generally, Dr. Emery did not personally interact with CES patients prior to administrative personnel issuing buprenorphine prescriptions in his name.
Dr. Emery received $452,830 from the organization during the conspiracy, and the judge ordered a forfeiture money judgment for that amount.
“Physicians play a significant role in treating patients struggling with substance use disorder and the vast majority take that responsibility very seriously,” said US Attorney Russ Ferguson.
