Local physician indicted for $2.4M health care fraud

Dr. Randall Halley, a Springfield-area physician with ties to multiple health care organizations, was indicted for his role in an alleged $2.4 million health care fraud scheme.

A federal grand jury in Springfield on Jan. 23 returned a 29-count indictment against Halley, 63, of Nixa, according to a news release from the office of Tim Garrison, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri.

Halley operated Ozarks Community Hospital’s Christian County clinic in Nixa 2004-19. He also has served as medical director at Springfield skilled nursing facility Magnolia Square; Ozark residential care facility Ozark Riverview Manor; Marionville skilled nursing facility Ozarks Methodist Manor; and Seasons Hospice & Palliative Care in Springfield.

The physician, according to the release, was the leading prescriber of a fentanyl spray in Missouri and one of the largest prescribers nationwide. The fentanyl spray was developed by a Chandler, Arizona-based pharmaceutical company.

The release did not name the pharmaceutical company. However, John Kapoor, founder and ex-chairman of Chandler-based Insys Therapeutics, was convicted last year of bribing doctors to prescribe the company’s Subsys fentanyl spray, according to The Associated Press. The spray is meant to help cancer patients cope with pain.

In the indictment, Halley is accused of accepting bribes from the pharmaceutical company to the tune of $92,225 in exchange for prescribing the medication. He allegedly wrote more than 355 prescriptions for the spray from May 2013 to March 2019. The alleged kickback scheme involved Halley receiving payment from the pharmaceutical company for participating in a speakers program.

Halley, according to the release, allegedly prescribed the spray to numerous patients who did not have cancer or did not qualify for insurance for the medication. He allegedly submitted fraudulent documents related to the prescriptions. He’s also accused of refusing to switch patients to a different medication when they complained of side effects.

Nga “Lily” Nguyen, 40, of Springfield, and Kimberly Hoffer, 47, of Ozark, also are charged along with Halley for their roles in the scheme, according to the release. Both were employees of Halley.

According to the indictment, Halley was regularly absent from his Nixa clinic and would sign prescriptions for patients on dates prior to their office visits. Halley’s employees, who did not have a Drug Enforcement Administration registration number and could not legally prescribe the fentanyl spray, allegedly prepared the prescriptions for patients when Halley was out of the office.

The indictment includes a money judgment of at least $2.4 million against Halley, according to the release.

Halley previously was connected to a probation case involving Rep. Lynn Morris, R-Nixa, according to Springfield Business Journal archives.

Morris in 2015 was put on probation for three years for 32 prescriptions written by Family Pharmacy Inc., his former company. Prescriptions were written under the name of Halley, who according to past reporting, did not authorize the prescriptions or examine those receiving them.