LAWSUIT: Tuscaloosa Psychiatrist Received Kickbacks For Giving Improper Prescriptions

BIRMINGHAM, AL — A federal lawsuit has been filed against a Tuscaloosa psychiatrist who has worked in several nursing homes in Alabama, alleging that he benefitted financially through doling out improper prescriptions to residents in longterm care facilities.

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U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona said on Friday that Dr. Charles T. Nevels submitted fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medicaid for the prescription drug Nuedexta, which is given only for the treatment of pseudobulbar affect (PBA) — a condition characterized by involuntary laughing or crying.

According to the UAB Medical West website, Nevels is a psychiatry specialist in Tuscaloosa who is affiliated with the UAB Medical West main campus in Bessemer and has nearly half a century of experience in the medical field.

Escalona said Nuedexta has not been shown to be safe and effective in non-PBA types of emotional lability that can commonly occur, for example, in Alzheimer’s disease and other cases of dementia.

What's more, the complaint alleges that from 2015 through 2019, the pharmaceutical company that manufactures Nuedexta paid Nevels more than $400,000 to make speeches. However, the U.S. Attorney's Office argues that the speeches had few — if any — attendees, little value, and were intended to compensate Nevels for prescribing Nuedexta.

In November 2016, for example, Nuedexta paid Nevels a $2,000 speaker fee to give a presentation in Decatur. According to the company's own records, Escalona said, there were no attendees.

“The Department of Justice will fight to protect nursing home residents, including by ensuring that prescribing decisions affecting them are free from undue influence, and the medications they receive are medically appropriate for them,” Escalona said in a statement Friday.

Other claims against Nevels and Nuedexta:

• Nuedexta allegedly paid Nevels for the expenses he claimed related to the presentations he gave.
• In addition to the speaker fee he received for each presentation, Nuedexta reportedly paid Nevels over $1,500 for claimed expenses associated with a presentation at The Arrogant Butcher in Phoenix, Arizona, and over $1,200 for claimed expenses associated with a presentation at the Gamlin Whiskey House in St. Louis, Missouri.
• A Nuedexta sales representative alletedly visited nursing homes where Nevels worked and sought to convince nurses there to refer patients to him to help Nevels “build [his] base of business."
• The U.S. Attorney's Office says Dr. Nevels would then prescribe Nuedexta to nursing home residents who did not have PBA.
• The complaint alleges Nevels to have accounted for more than half of all Medicare claims for Neudexta in Alabama. Between 2015 and 2019, he reportedly caused more than $6 million in Medicare claims and $800,000 in Medicaid claims for the drug.

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