JACKSON, Ky. (WYMT) Seven recovery clinics in Eastern Kentucky will be allowed to stay open after a Medicaid freeze hindered their ability to fund themselves. Four clinics in Hazard, Jackson, Paintsville and Richmond were raided back in August and are currently under investigation by the Attorney General’s office.
Dr. George Burnette’s seven clinics treat more than 2,200 patients and had all Medicaid payments withheld from the beginning on Sept. 19, until a judge said payments needed to continue on Oct. 16. Officials confirmed in courtroom footage the Burnette was being criminally investigated but has not been charged with anything.
In courtroom footage from the Breathitt County Circuit Court, comments from both the plaintiffs, defendant and the judge shed more light on the situation.
“I did receive permission to disclose that Dr. Burnette and other physicians associated with the recovery center are being criminally investigated by the attorney general’s office,” said an official with the Cabinet of Health and Family Services Department of Medicaid Services.
Clyde Simmons said in that footage that communication from the Attorney General’s office had been very scarce relating to the investigation. Court documents revealed that the clinics employed “78 people and 20 contract physicians, and spending $160,000 each week to operate its treatment centers.”
“They only thing we have been told, the only thing is that they had credible information, credible allegations of fraud, what fraud, we haven’t been told what fraud?” said Simmons
The judge said on Oct. 16 the clinics would remain open.